Mama June Shannon Accuses Late Daughter Anna Cardwell’s Ex Michael Cardwell of Physically Abusing Anna & Anna’s Oldest Daughter Amid June & Michael’s Custody Battle

June, trying to figure out how many seasons of her TV show she can squeeze out of this custody battle…

The gloves are off and the allegations are (still) flying for Mama June Shannon. 

According to The Sun, June filed a response this week to her former son-in-law Michael Cardwell’s petition for custody of Kaitlyn, the daughter of June’s late daughter Anna Cardwell. In her response, June is alleging that Michael was physically abusive to both Anna and Kaitlyn in the past. 

However, Michael’s attorney is denying June’s claims.

Anna and her daughters in 2022…

Anna passed away in December from cancer, leaving behind two daughters– 11-year-old Kaitlyn and 8-year-old Kylee. Following Anna’s death, Kylee went to live with her father, Michael, while June was preparing to take custody of Kaitlyn. However, Michael-– who has been a consistent father figure to Kaitlyn despite the two not being biologically related-– is now fighting June for custody of Kaitlyn. 

Michael and both girls in 2022…

June stated in her response to Michael’s filing this week, that due to his (alleged) past actions, Kaitlyn should not be placed in his care. 

“During his marriage to Anna, plaintiff frequently abused Anna and the child and it would not be in the child’s best interest to be in the plaintiff’s care and control,” she stated. 

While Michael claimed in his initial complaint that Kaitlyn would join Kylee for visits, June argued this week that those visits only happened because Kylee didn’t want to visit Michael “if Kaitlyn did not come with her.”

June also claimed the visits were “infrequent.”   

A post from 2022 on the Facebook page of Michael’s fiancé shows both girls staying at Michael’s.

In a statement to The Sun, Michael’s attorney denied latest the allegations against his client. 

“Michael flatly denies any type of abuse to his children or his ex-wife or any other past girlfriend,” the statement read. “We will see how June plans to prove this or any other of her supposed truths or allegations.” 

Michael’s attorney was seemingly referring to June’s recent claim that it was Anna’s “dying wish” for Kaitlyn to live with June instead of Michael. 

…likes to embellish things…

Michael’s attorney previously said he was not made aware of any such statement made by Anna. 

“I have not heard anything to that effect,” he said. “I have no documentation as far as any final wishes for Ms. Cardwell.” 

June also argued in the recent court documents that she and Anna-– who were estranged for many years-– actually “had a stable parent-child relationship” except for “one short period of disagreement.”

(As The Ashley previously reported, Anna became estranged from June as an adult after June became romantically linked again to Mark McDaniel, the man who molested Anna as a child. June reconnected with him after he got out of prison for his crimes against Anna. That scandal also caused TLC to cancel Here Comes Honey Boo Boo in 2014. June and Anna were estranged for years, until Anna was diagnosed with cancer in early 2023.) 

“That’s only, like, nine years or so, y’all! Otherwise we was as close as peas and carrots!”

In her response, June insisted, though, that Kaitlyn was able to spend her childhood “regularly seeing and spending time with” June. In addition, she claimed that Michael was the person who wasn’t regularly in Kaitlyn’s life following his and Anna’s divorce.

“[Michael] has had an inconsistent presence in the child’s life since at least 2017,” June claimed, adding that Anna’s second husband, Elridge Toney, was Kaitlyn’s stable father figure following Anna and Michael’s divorce.

The ‘Mama June: Family Crisis’ star also disputed Michael’s previous claims that he continues to pay for Kaitlyn’s schooling, despite the fact that he has no biological obligation to the girl.

June stated in her filing that Michael only paid for two-and-a-half years of school, and that he did so because he wasn’t paying child support for his bio daughter Kylee. 

June is asking the court to deny and dismiss Michael’s petition for custody. 

RELATED STORY: Mama June Shannon Claims Daughter Anna Cardwell’s Last Wishes Regarding Daughter Kaitlyn’s Custody Were Filmed for ‘Mama June: Family Crisis’ 

(Photos: WEtv; Instagram; Facebook) 

22 Responses


  1. I’m sorry isn’t this the same woman who allowed her daughter to be molested the man went to prison for molesting someone else because she wouldn’t back her own daughter someone else had to get the guy arrested after not protecting her child and hating her so bad she sent her to live with her grandparents so she can still date the guy after he gets out of jail. She dates him again and leaves honey boo-boo along with him in a hotel room gets there entire show canceled so she can go on a drug addicted fling through Georgia and now she wants to raise another child. She’s not even raising her own child , why in God’s name with any judge in America give a child to this woman the child should be homeless before she should be left with this woman she probably be safer. The child should live in the middle of the north Sea on an oil rig before she should be given to this woman, she’d probably be safer. I can’t think of any situation where she would not be safer than this train wreck fame drug addict piece of trash.


  2. I think they need to start drug testing June again. She’s always been a POS, abusive, with narcissistic tendencies, but when she’s getting high and/or drunk, she’s always a million times worse. This is the kind of shit that high/drunk June does and says.

    I hope to hell they are dealing with a judge that actually gives a shit about the best interests of the child. If they are, June will not even be allowed anywhere near either of the children, ever again, not even for visitation.

    I absolutely cannot stand June. The way she’s treated Anna her whole life (and her other girls too, regardless of the things they too say and do) and now her own granddaughter just proves what a POS she truly is. She will use and abuse, in any way possible, if it benefits her.

    I guarantee you that cow is high af, or drinking, again.


  3. so she is saying that this man was abusive to this child. anna left him. then still allowed this child to go to his house when she didnt have to? ok. If he was so abusive then why isnt she fighting for BOTH girls?


  4. June should bring the receipts to court, then. We have all seen the receipts on June, though….she picked a s*x offender over Anna (after she knew he abused Anna). She lost custody of Allana over her drug addiction, also chose Geno (? I forget his name) over her. Has criminal charges over drug possession.

    I don’t know anything about Michael. I hope he’s been a stable parent to both girls, as claimed, and that he isn’t abusive. June seems very manipulative, though. I really don’t believe her. Bring receipts to court.


  5. She is crazy for sure and I really hope the best for the kids involved. But I feel like I remember in the early episodes of honey boo boo june wasn’t terrible?? Strange yeah but not a bad mother? When did all of this change?


    1. June didn’t believe Anna when she Said june’s bf was molesting her. She shouldn’t have custody over a fish.


    2. She has literally always been trash, you’re remembering it wrong.

      She was a POS when they started, she’s only grown in shitty magnitude since.


    3. The original show came about as a spin-off from *Toddlers and Tiaras*: from a show filled with trainwreck parents throwing their [generally lacking] money into shady-to-truly-criminal-enterprise child pageants to live vicariously through (and often abuse on film) their children, June and Alana were among the most memorable for, among other things, young Alana’s “hilarious” reciting of phrases from the stripper joint, performing a would-be puppet show with her very large tummy, and being constantly fed a mysterious “Go-Go Juice”–along with a constant feeding of sugar, as most of the children were–to “give her the energy to perform at her best.”

      June was always terrible. Nearly every parent involved in this show was, but June and Alana just stood out among the many families who could barely afford to keep a roof over their trailers yet shelled out thousands of dollars a pop on the hope and a dream that gambling away this money on these sad little pageants would pay off for their families rather than putting that money to something silly like healthy food and an education. This is by no means a dig at the socioeconomic status of most of the families involved but in how the industry exploited them and the poor choices to spend money on this rather than something that would better their families’ lives.

      For June, it *did* pay off, primarily because of the reality TV landscape at the time: Alana was no winner in the pageant, but the family won out as representing the greatest dichotomy of the wealth and poise the pageants had the pretense of representing and the family’s actual presentation.

      June wormed her way into what should have been a one-off TV appearance by exploiting and abusing one child, while she’d been doing so for many years off-screen with her siblings, managed to score a long-term reality TV career and social media platforms out of continuing to do so, and now, right as her youngest–of whom she hasn’t had custody for years–ages out, she’s trying to get herself a replacement.

      She has been terrible as long as she’s been in the public eye, she was terrible long before that based off of what we know of her treatment of her oldest child, and she continues to be terrible based on these actions.

      While we can’t be *certain* that there’s no merit to her claims wrt abuse, she just showed herself to still be lying publicly and presumably under oath by stating she and Anna had a good relationship except for a short estrangement, which is probably false and due to her not only not protecting Anna from abuse but choosing the abuser over her abused daughter.

      Allegations of abuse should always be taken seriously, but June has ensured that she continues to have zero credibility. She hurts every single victim who already has to fight to be believed by pulling this shit.

      June was always terrible. She just has a larger platform through which to be terrible now, but hopefully, as a society, we also know a bit better now and recognize that her terribleness is real children’s lives and not media entertainment.


      1. I don’t understand how you say nearly every parent involved in the show was terrible. Pumpkin is a great mom and so was Anna.


  6. That’s rich. Your daughter had custody of your minor child because you abandoned her for drugs and the primordial ooze you were “living with” at the time. And speaking about primordial ooze didn’t you remain “friends” with someone who sexually abused your daughter? People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.


    1. I think I saw on TMZ or maybe Dr. Phil that there was actual video evidence of June and Alana laying in a bed with the same guy that just got out of prison for molesting Anna. Anna did an interview at the time questioning how June could do this. This pedo did 10 years for what he did to Anna. And June was there with open arms and Alana to sacrifice when he got out. Why in ANY universe would anyone entrust June to raise Kaitlin?


  7. June is disgusting. Anna wouldn’t allow Kaitlyn (who wasn’t his biological child) to keep spending time with Michael if he was ever abusive to her, she wouldn’t have the obligation to do so. I hope he sues the f*ck out of June when she can’t present a single proof or testimony about his alleged abuse towards Anna or Kaitlyn


  8. I truly hate her. I don’t believe this at all! Let’s talk about June being abusive to her own children.

    * Stealing their money to use on boy toys and drugs.

    * Selling her house that she promised to her kids for drugs.

    * Selling her daughter’s belongings for drugs.

    * Having Alana around the same guy that molested Anna.

    * Having Jessica’s car repossessed again for money to give to her multiple boy toys and drugs.

    * Abandoning Alana and balking at the fact that she needs to pay child support for HER child. Yet she had no problem buying cars, houses, drugs, etc on multiple men.

    Right now she gets on tik tok and says the most disgusting vile things you can imagine. Using the “C word” being VERY sexually explicit all with Kaitlin right there. Josh, June and Justin have screamed at Kaitlin making her cry. They made a comment when she started crying (keep in mind she just lost her mother and sister) that they don’t do “soft parenting” over there. Then June says “I have cussed at my fucking kids from day one. Haha no we don’t do fucking soft parenting here.”

    The fact of the matter is that they don’t do any parenting. None of them have actual jobs. They act entitled and like their “fans” should financially support them. I used to love Pumpkin and Josh on the show. I thought it was amazing that they took the responsibility of raising Alana even though they had their own kids. I have now realized that is the edited version that the show wants us to see. Josh, Pumpkin, Jessica, Justin and Alana talk exactly like June. No child deserves to be raised by these trashy ass people.


    1. I hope Michael is recording these Tik Tok videos so the judge can see who the abusive one is.

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