June Shannon Opens Up About Anna's Ex-Husband Michael Taking Her Daughter Kylee 'Away from Everybody' After Her Death (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Mama Jun Shannon and daughter Anna.Photo:Noel Vasquez/Getty; Anna Cardwell/Instagram

Noel Vasquez/Getty; Anna Cardwell/Instagram

Mama June Shannonis opening up about the current living situation ofAnna “Chickadee” Cardwell’sdaughter Kylee following her mom’sdeathlast December.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, theMama June: Family Crisisstar, 45, discussed her granddaughter Kylee Madison, 8, living with her dad, Anna’s ex-husband Michael Cardwell, in Alabama. Anna, who died at age 29 less than a year after astage 4 adrenal carcinoma diagnosis, is also a mom to daughter Kaitlyn, 12, from a previous relationship.

Asked what the hardest part of the past year without Anna has been, she said, “Her just not being here for the girls and a lot of s— has happened.”

“We had to go through a custody battle that we won,” she explained of her battle for Anna’s daughter Kaitlyn (Shannon did not ask for custody of Kylee as her dad Michael is her guardian). “We had to also deal with Michael taking Kylee away from everybody here and moving to Alabama,” she claimed.

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Mama June.Desiree Navarro/Getty

Desiree Navarro/Getty

She tells PEOPLE, “He moved to Alabama the first November” after Anna’s death. She recalls cautioning Michael, “Well, the girls will never see each other if y’all move away,” and then, “Boom. The court case ends, he gets remarried and they move back to Sylacauga, Alabama.”

Shannon says the “funny thing” about Michael moving to Alabama with his new wife London “is that the same pipeline dream that he has sold to London is him repeating his life with Anna,” she alleges.

“He was with Anna for two years. Once they got married, he moved to Sylacauga, Alabama. He was going to open up a mechanic shop and they were going to build a house on some land over there.”

“Now with London, they were together two and a half years. They got married. A month after they got married, they moved to Alabama,” she continues. “They’re supposed to be opening up this diesel shop and supposedly building a house across the road from his father.”

“And it’s like damn, you could have changed the story up just a little bit,” Shannon adds.

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Mama June and Anna.Mega

Mega

“We want to see Kylee, 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,” she says. “So that’s the reason why we, as a family and even Eldridge [Toney, Anna’s second husband,] haven’t been allowed to take Kylee and spend time with her when they’ve had access to Kaitlyn for the last year.”

Shannon notes that Anna had a feeling Michael would react this way before she died, sharing that the worry was “something she really struggled with.” Shannon adds, “That’s why we fought and was like, ‘Okay, let’s go to war’” for the custody of Kaitlyn.

source: people.com