Mama June (real name: June Shannon) has been making headlines recently for her transformative weight loss, which she has achieved due to a combination of dieting and surgery. (Shannon, specifically, has received a sleeve gastrectomy, a procedure which removes a large portion of the stomach by cutting and stapling the organ into a small tube shape.) Her weight loss is the subject of new WE TV series Mama June: From Not To Hot, and while some elements of the series are problematic (including Shannon's desire to lose weight as "revenge" on her ex Sugar Bear, whom she learns is getting married prior to her weight loss journey) a new clip from the series portrays Shannon in a particularly sympathetic light.
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In a new clip from the series, provided by People, Shannon cries as she says goodbye to her daughters before leaving for her skin removal surgery, her next step in her body transformation journey. The surgery takes Shannon away from her home in Georgia to California for three weeks, and Shannon's daughters Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, and Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon, will be left behind. Shannon opened up to the cameras about how that made her feel:
“I’m always emotional when I leave the girls,” said Shannon in the new clip. “I’m going to be leaving them for three weeks, and going into this surgery without them by my side is going to be really hard.”
Check out the video here.
Shannon is many ways a controversial figure: her TLC series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was cancelled after reports that she was spending time with the ex who molested Shannon's then 8-year-old daughter Anna came to light. Yet it's hard not to feel for Shannon in this clip: surgery is almost always a little scary, and it's particularly difficult when you can't have the people you care about by your side.