Star Magazine logo

STAR Pays for Scoops!

Button which opens 'Send us a scoop' formClick here!

or call (800) 609-8312

EXCLUSIVE -- Mama June Shannon: Suicide Shocker!

Honey Boo Boo shows off her new Louis Vuitton bag in McIntyre, GA

Credit: Photo Credit: Jason Winslow/Splash News/Corbis

TLC’s smash reality series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo came to a swift end last month in the wake of the scandal involving “Mama June” Shannon’s sick love affair with a convicted child molester. But the show would have never existed at all if June had succeeded in ending her own life one evening in early 2005!

That’s the claim of Patricia East, who was married to “Sugar Bear” Thompson before he left her for June. And in a horrifying twist, Patricia claims June was pregnant with Alana when she attempted suicide!

Patricia and Sugar Bear met on an Internet chat room in 2001. She eventually moved to Georgia to be with him, and trouble started immediately after she rented a place for them to live. On their first Valentine’s Day as husband and wife, “I answered the door while he was out and it was a woman who told me she was his girlfriend!” Patricia recalls.

She caught Sugar Bear with June one night, and the now-reality star called her a few nights later. “She told me: ‘My name is June Shannon, and I’ve been sleeping with Michael. I know he’s your husband — but he’s mine now!'” Patricia remembers. “I found out later that she’d also been pregnant by Michael while we were still married, but she lost the baby.”

Despite divorcing in 2004, Patricia stayed in touch with her ex, and got a frantic phone call from him in early 2005, when June was pregnant with Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson. “Michael told me, ‘Please come over! June is trying to kill herself!'” Patricia claims. “I wanted to do the right thing, so I went over. She was upset about something and had taken an overdose of Tylenol or Advil. We called Poison Control, and I talked to her to try and keep her awake.”

For the full story, pick up the latest issue of Star, on newsstands now!