14 DAY TRIAL // Honey Boo Boo is currently the richest kid in reality television, thanks to her show on TLC, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” but don’t expect her or her family to blow it all on useless stuff. In fact, her mother tells TMZ, she’s personally making sure her kids’ future is ensured.
Alana Thompson (aka Honey Boo Boo) first shot to fame on another TLC reality program, the much criticized “Toddlers & Tiaras.”
However, she and her family were such a hit that they got their own spinoff. June Shannon, Alana’s mother, tells TMZ she’s personally making sure that her kids have all they need when they become of age, having set up trust funds for each of them.
“The lion's share of earnings from ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ (a cool $15k - $20k [€11,376 - € 15,168] per episode) is being equally divided into funds for all 5 girls... Alana ‘HBB’ Thompson (7), Lauryn (12), Jessica (15) and Anna (18) and baby Kaitlyn,” TMZ reports.
The girls won’t be able to touch this money until they become of age (21), or in case of a medical emergency or for school.
Showing more sense than many other reality stars who have come and gone from the spotlight in recent years, Shannon stresses that she wants the series to be a means to ensure a future for their children, and not just something that would allow them to spend a fortune on trivia.
“I want my kids to look back and say, ‘Mama played it smart. Not like those other reality TV people’,” June says for the celebrity e-zine.
She never touches the money, she says. It all goes straight in the bank, while the family continues to live, as before, from Sugarbear’s job as a contractor.
“TLC puts the money into the girls' trust accounts for me and then I get an email telling me how much everyone gets. You're never gonna see me drive a Range Rover or a Mercedes. I'll drive one if someone else pays for it. Never gonna live above my means,” she adds.