Anna Cardwell Courtesy of Anna Cardwell/Instagram
Anna Cardwell, Mama June Shannon’s eldest daughter, has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, according to People.
TMZ, who was first to report the news, revealed that the 28-year-old reality TV alum had been diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma in January. According to the outlet, Cardwell’s illness had been discovered after she complained about intense stomach aches. TMZ noted that the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum underwent her first round of chemotherapy last month.
“This is what I mean when I say you never truly know what somebody is going through at home. No matter how famous they are,” Cardwell’s youngest sister, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Thursday, March 30, sharing a screenshot of the TMZ post. “I’m very famous but normal s—t happens to me and my family & y’all need to realize that ASAP.”
Mama June, and daughters Lauryn Efrid (aka Pumpkin), Jessica Shannon, 24, (aka Chubbs), Anna Cardwell, 26, (aka Chickadee) and Alana Thompson, 15, (aka Honey Boo Boo). MEGA
Cardwell is the oldest of the 43-year-old TLC matriarch’s daughters, whom she shares with ex David Dunn. Shannon and Dunn also share daughter Jessica, 26. The Mama June: From Not to Hot personality also shares daughter Lauryn, 23, with ex Michael Anthony Ford and daughter Alana, 17, with former partner Mike “Sugar Bear” Thompson.
The Toddlers and Tiaras alum is a mother herself, welcoming daughters Kaitlyn and Kylee in 2012 and 2015, respectively, with ex-husband Michael Cardwell. The twosome, who separated in 2017, previously dealt with a harrowing medical emergency when daughter Kaitlyn, then 4, went under the knife to have the extra thumb that she was born with removed.
“The doctor told me that she did very, very well,” Anna exclusively told Us in November 2016 of the procedure. “[At first] she was like, ‘No, Mommy, I’m going to miss my little finger. I said, ‘When you get older, people might pick on you. You don’t know that.’ She was like, ‘Well then, Ma, you can get on to them and go back and pick at them.’”
Anna Cardwell with her daughters. MEGA
She added at the time: “All my mama was worried about was [if Kaitlyn] have mobility in her thumb after the surgery. That’s why she didn’t want [Kaitlyn] to get it done, and same for my sisters. … They got upset whenever I told them. I said, ‘I really hope Kylee don’t have it because I don’t want to go through it again.’ My sister Jessica got kind of really upset about that. And then [Kylee] ended up not having it.”
Kaitlyn has since made a full recovery, with her mother continuing to share family milestones of both girls via her social media.
“Y’all I got a first grader I am so proud of my baby for going to first grade she is so smart, excuse me while I go cry because I am getting old ,” Anna gushed via Instagram in May 2022, sharing graduation snaps of Kylee.
