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Anna Cardwell’s Husband Eldridge Says She ‘Wanted’ to Film Her Final Days for Cancer ‘Awareness’
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star Anna Cardwell’s final days of life were filmed for her family’s TV show, Mama June: Family Crisis, at her request so that she could help spread awareness of her rare form of cancer, according to the late reality star’s husband, Eldridge Toney.
“The filming was something that Anna wanted to do,” Eldridge told People in an interview published on Sunday, December 17. He added that “there is still so much unknown” about adrenal carcinoma, the form of adrenal cancer that Anna, who died at 29 years old on December 9, was diagnosed with in January.
“It is very rare,” Eldridge concluded.
Anna’s family previously told the publication about the filming of her last days at her funeral on December 13, noting that the Toddlers & Tiaras alum considered the show’s crew as her “friends and family.” Though the crew attended her funeral, cameras were not rolling during the service.
Sources close to the family also told TMZ on December 13 that Anna was “open to documenting everything” in her 10-month cancer battle.
“[She] wanted fans to know everything she faced, since she was always candid with them,” an insider told the publication. “Anna had no problems with the production team filming her journey.”
However, the crew reportedly stopped filming hours before her death in order to give her family privacy.
In the days leading up to Anna’s death, her mom, June “Mama June” Shannon, and sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird posted on Facebook asking for prayers. June, 44, announced the sad news of her daughter’s death on December 10.
“With the breaking heart, we are announcing that [Anna] is no longer with us,” she wrote. “She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 PM. She gave one hell of a fight for 10 months. She passed away with her family around her. 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 [during] this difficult time.”
June, Lauryn, and sisters Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon and Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson remembered Anna in social media posts the same day. On December 13, the family gathered at Williams-White Columns Funeral Home in Gordon, Georgia, for the funeral service. June revealed in a TikTok video that Anna had originally wanted her funeral to be livestreamed for fans, but her mom ultimately decided to invite fans to attend the wake in person. She also urged fans to get Anna’s account to reach 1 million followers before the funeral.
Though June received backlash for her requests, she later clapped back at those who criticized the way she was grieving Anna’s death.
“Let me answer some of y’all stupid a– people I can’t tell you how many times I broke down even before Anna passed away,” she wrote in an Instagram comment on December 11. “During this process, there’s something as simple as riding down the road and somebody saying something that will tear me up.”
June continued, “You also have to think that one of her children are staying with me and another one of her children lost her mother on their birthday which is super sad [sic]. I am grieving but I wouldn’t want us sitting around crying 24 seven either, having to be strong like ass because my body hurts [sic].”
June concluded by thanking fans for their support and slamming her haters.
“My mental emotional s—t is all out of whack,” the mom of four said. “For the people who are all about negativity, don’t give them any of your energy and those people will rot in hell because they can’t say how they would act. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had a face of my whole entire life.”
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