Mama June Shannon just dropped a heartbreaking update about her late daughter Anna Cardwell’s two girls, and it’s leaving fans emotional.
Since Anna’s tragic passing, her daughters, 12-year-old Kaitlyn and 9-year-old Kylee, have been living apart and haven’t seen each other since their mom’s funeral.
In a new interview with PEOPLE ahead of Mama June: Family Crisis, the reality star revealed that although she has custody of Kaitlyn, Kylee now lives with her father, Michael Cardwell, in Alabama. And no, the distance between the girls isn’t Mama June’s doing. “Unfortunately not,” she said when asked if they’ve been spending time together. “It’s not due to us.”
This update confirms what fans have feared for a while, Anna’s daughters, who once shared everything, are now separated. According to court docs, Mama June was officially granted full custody of Kaitlyn by a Georgia judge on September 20, 2024. That custody fight wasn’t easy. Michael Cardwell, who’s not Kaitlyn’s biological dad but had been part of her life since she was 8 months old, filed to get custody and visitation rights in late 2023.
June opened up about how hard that fight was. “It was emotional because you have to go through that,” she said. “I hated that we had to go through that. We couldn’t sit down and talk things out and come to an agreement as much as I had begged for that.” But at the end of the day, June made one thing crystal clear, she was fighting for what Anna wanted. “You either follow what Anna wanted her to do or not fight. And that’s what we did. We fought, and it was a long battle. It went from one day to three and a half days with the court.”
Back in December 2024, June told PEOPLE that one of the hardest parts of this whole situation was how everything unfolded with Kylee. “We weren’t able to say our goodbyes and spend time with Kylee,” she admitted. While Kaitlyn has had chances to spend time with Michael and his family, Kylee hasn’t been allowed to do the same with June’s side of the family, or even with Eldridge Toney, Anna’s second husband.
“We want to see Kylee,” she said. “But the message was, to me from Michael, that Kylee is not going out of his sight, and if he has to pay for that later, then he will.” That means despite June having custody of Kaitlyn and being open to contact between both girls and their extended family, Kylee’s father has drawn a hard line.
June also shared that Anna saw this coming. “That’s something she really struggled with,” she said about Anna’s fear that her daughters would be separated after she passed. “That’s why we fought and were like, ‘Okay, let’s go to war’” to make sure Kaitlyn would be cared for how Anna wanted.
Now, while the family is still dealing with the emotional fallout, Mama June: Family Crisis is returning with even more insight into what really went down. The new season premiered on May 30 at 8 p.m. ET on We TV and promises to dig deeper into the tension, grief, and complicated custody drama surrounding Anna’s death and her daughters’ lives today.
Mama June is continuing to raise Kaitlyn while keeping the door open for Kylee if and when that situation changes. It’s a tough situation all around, but it’s clear June is determined to stick to what her daughter would’ve wanted.
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