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Mama June Reveals Why Daughter Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell Stopped Cancer Treatments: ‘Over It’
June “Mama June” Shannon revealed why her daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell chose to stop her cancer treatments and enter hospice before her death.
“I think she was just over it,” June, 44, told E! in an interview published on Thursday, April 11. “She just wanted to spend her last days doing what she wanted to do.”
Anna was 29 years old when she died on December 9, 2023, after a battle with stage 4 adrenal cancer. The mom of two first announced her shocking diagnosis to fans in March 2023.
“It was difficult watching her have to go through chemo,” the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum explained to the outlet. “Having to go through radiation and having to do immunotherapy, and then trying to get into hospice long before we actually could.”
The reality TV personality emphasized that her daughter was a “feisty one,” through her last days and revealed it was difficult convincing her medical team to approve hospice care.
“Watching her try to say, ‘OK, I’m done with treatment, I just want to live the rest of my life the way I want to live it,'” June said. “They wouldn’t listen.”
Following Anna’s death, June was granted custody of Anna’s eldest daughter, Kaitlyn. Meanwhile, Anna’s ex-husband, Michael Cardwell, was awarded custody of Kylee, 8.
“I tell Kaitlyn all the time, ‘I’ll never replace your mother,'” she told the outlet of the new family dynamic. “I say this all the time, but Kylee shouldn’t have to be raised by Kylee’s dad. I shouldn’t be raising Kaitlyn. Anna should be here raising her children. It’s not fair for any of us that Anna’s gone, especially for her children.”
Anna’s final days were documented for season 6 of Mama June: Family Crisis, which debuted in February. Prior to the premiere, June claimed Anna’s final wishes, including the custody plans for her two daughters, were captured by reality TV cameras.
“We are following Anna’s wishes at the end of the day. People will see that all this season of the show,” she told The U.S. Sun on January 11. “A lot was covered on camera. The world will hear it from Anna’s mouth. This is a hard season to watch, for sure. Like I said when I’ve been going live on TikTok, a lot of people need to realize that a lot of our life has been documented.”
During the March 1 episode, fans watched as June discussed with her husband, Justin Stroud, what would happen to her granddaughters in terms of custody after Anna’s death.
“It’s a hard subject to talk about but like, when that time does come, like whenever Anna was to pass away, Eldridge [Toney] has told all of us that he’s not going to be able to handle [raising her kids],” June told husband Justin, 36, about Anna’s husband. “So like, I want to be able to have that place to be like, OK, you can come here.’”
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