Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon has appeared on reality TV for nearly 15 years, however, the WeTV star revealed this week that her mom, Mama June Shannon, used to force her to film for their family’s reality show as a child, even when she didn’t want to. 

As fans of ‘Mama June’ know, Pumpkin and her family made their TV debut on ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’ and went on to score their own spin-off, ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,’ which aired from 2012 to 2014. A few years later, Pumpkin and her family returned to TV in another spin-off, ‘Mama June: From Not to Hot,’ which continues to air on WeTV under the rebranded title ‘Mama June: Family Crisis.’

On the latest episode of the ‘After the Call’ podcast, Pumpkin opened up about her unusual upbringing in front of the cameras and how her mom allegedly didn’t give her a say when it came to filming.

“ … If I would have came to my mom at 11 years old and was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ it would have been [like], ‘Shut up, you’re going to do it,’ a thousand percent,” Pumpkin claimed. 

The recently engaged mom of four went on to recall how she and her family “were just kind of thrown into” the reality TV world, where much of their family conversations began taking place exclusively on camera.  

“There was no, ‘Oh, let’s talk outside of the cameras, let’s do this, let’s do that,’” she said. “No, it was, ‘Do we need to ask the film crew first? Do we always have to ask them?’”   

According to Pumpkin, her family was “always filming” for their TV show(s) when she was a child, with the crew often capturing footage in an invasive manner.  

“There were some days the film crew would come in there, we’d still be asleep and, like, they would wake us up,” she recalled. “Like boom– you’re already up with cameras in your face. I’m 11 years old, right? And I’m like, ‘This is kind of crazy.’ 

“But now that I’m an adult and I look back on that, I’m like, ‘Wow, we had no privacy as kids,’” she continued. “None at all.” 

Fast forward more than a decade, Pumpkin’s four children– whom she shares with ex-husband Josh Efird– are now having parts of their childhood filmed for TV; however, Pumpkin insists their on-camera experience is entirely different from her own.   

“A lot of the times when I’m having an adult conversation, whether it be on-camera, off of camera, my kids aren’t anywhere around,” she said. “Especially my oldest; I mean, she’s the one who comprehends the most. She’s the one that really is like a sponge, truly. 

“ … If my eight-year-old says, like, ‘Oh I don’t really want to film today,’ I’m like, ‘OK, cool. Fine, you don’t have to,’” she continued. “There’s never a time when I’m like, ‘Oh, you have to go and do this … .’” 

You can watch a clip from Pumpkin’s interview on ‘After the Call’ below. 

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(Photos: WeTV; Instagram)