TLC's Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson resurfaces to address traumatic childhood — where she is now | HELLO! (2025)

Honey Boo Boo would like to formally reintroduce herself as Alana Thompson.

It has been 14 years since the Toddlers & Tiaras alum shot to fame, when she was only five years old and appeared on the infamous TLC reality show, and inadvertently created the nickname she is now known for when she said: "A dollar made me holler, honey boo boo!"

In those years, she has had a myriad of ups and downs, including grappling with her mother June Elizabeth "Mama June" Shannon's drug abuse, and now, she's ready to open up about it.

Later this week, on Saturday, May 17, Alana, now 19, will premiere a new Lifetime biopic titled I Was Honey Boo Boo.

I Was Honey Boo Boo

Speaking with People ahead of the release, and reflecting on the last 14 years, she said: "Looking back it's like, 'Dang, I really went through all that [expletive]? That's crazy.'"

Much of the biopic will cover her rollercoaster relationship with her mother, who has been sober for over five years now, but for years dealt with an addiction to crack cocaine, in 2019 was arrested and charged for felony drug possession, and in 2022, custody of her Alana was handed over to her other daughter, Lauryn.

"I did not want this movie to be throwing punches at my mama and making her out to be the bad guy," Alana noted, though maintained: "But I didn't hold back and if she gets mad, at the end of the day it's the truth."

Her relationship with her mom today

Alana and Mama June still film together for WeTV's Mama June: Family Crisis, which is returning for its seventh season on May 30. Though she said forgiving her mom "was hard" — Alana never saw much of the money that she made from her years of reality television — she maintained: "At the end of the day, she's my mom. When she was bad in her addiction I just kept thinking about the day she'd recover. We're going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her."

Mama June herself told People: "I don't remember who that person was, because I've worked so much on myself."

Where "Honey Boo Boo" is now

Today, Alana is a rising junior at Regis University in Colorado, and lives with her longtime boyfriend Dralin Carswell, 24.

Recalling making it to her high school graduation in 2023, even after her turbulent childhood, she said: "I just always told myself you know that you want to do something better with your life and bigger with your life than just being on TV, so you've got to get up and go, you've got to graduate so you can make it to college and be the nurse that you want to be."

Now that dream is well underway. "When I graduate I'll be the only one in my family with a degree," she noted, adding: "I love that I've persevered past who people thought I was."