“Mama June” Shannon was worried that she had cancer nearly three years after her daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s death.
“I had a total hysterectomy unexpectedly last year [in] April. It was not expected,” Mama June, 46, said on the Tuesday, March 3, episode of Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast. “It was a scare for me because I did have some fibroid cysts that went to separated cysts, and we had a little scare.”
According to Mama June, she was fearful of a potential cancer diagnosis after Anna died from stage IV adrenal carcinoma when she was 29 years old. (Mama June shared Anna and Jessica Shannon with David Dunn, Lauren “Pumpkin” Efird with Michael Anthony Ford and Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson with Mike “Sugar Bear” Thompson.)
“Me, in my mind, going through what Anna went through, I was worried it was going to be ovarian cancer,” the reality TV star recalled. “I even told the [other] kids that. I was in my head for a long time.”
Mama June wasn’t diagnosed with cancer, but noted on Tuesday that she’s “still dealing with medical issues” and is also going through menopause.
“Some days are a struggle for me, but it’s nothing like [cancer],” she said. “I tell people, ‘We know it’s not ever gonna kill me, but it could immobilize me.’”
Mama June has yet to publicly disclose her health battle.
“I’m still dealing with health issues now,” the Mama June: Family Crisis star previously told Us Weekly exclusively in May 2025. “We’re not releasing [it] to the public until we get all the answers.”
Mama June’s daughter Alana, 20, is also dutifully supporting her every step of the way.
“She’s been dumbing it down for us,” Mama June quipped of Alana’s nursing school studies. “She’s like, ‘No Mama, this is what you really have; this is what’s really going on.’ When we go to this other doctor when we get back, I need [her] to dumb it down some more.”
Two years earlier, Mama June confirmed Anna’s death.
“With the breaking heart, we are announcing that @annamarie35 is no longer with us. She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 p.m.,” the TLC matriarch said in an Instagram statement. “She gave one hell of a fight for 10 months she passed away with her family around her like she won’t and we will be updating y’all with more information as we get it today. We love y’all and continued prayers and thoughts for our family doing this difficult time.”
In addition to her mom and sisters, Anna is survived by her two young daughters. (Anna shared Kaylee with ex-husband Michael Cardwell, while Kaitlyn’s biological father has never been publicly revealed.)
“Kaitlyn is a constant reminder of Anna,” Mama June told Us in May 2025. “When we say attitude, looks, [the way she] talks, the way she laughs. [You’ll be listening to her] and you’ll be like, ‘Damn, it’s Anna.’”
