Mama June Shannon claimed her late daughter, Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell, revealed her custody plans on camera for the upcoming season of Mama June: Family Crisis.
"We are following Anna's wishes at the end of the day," she told a news outlet. "People will see that all this season of the show."
Following Anna's death, her ex-husband Michael Cardwell sued June for custody of the late 29-year-old's eldest daughter, Kaitlyn, 11, arguing that he'd already been acting as a parental figure to her since she was a baby. Michael currently has custody of Anna's youngest, Kylee, 8, who is his biological daughter.
Kaitlyn's father has not been named publicly and he is not a part of her life.
"A lot was covered on camera. The world will hear it from Anna's mouth," June said. "This is a hard season to watch, for sure. Like I said when I've been going live on TikTok, a lot of people need to realize that a lot of our life has been documented."
However, according to Michael's legal team, they have never seen any documented proof of Anna's custody wishes.
"We have heard that before, I believe that's been Ms. Shannon's claim for some time, but we've seen no documents and no footage of anything," he explained to the outlet.
"To be frank, this is a court case that is going to play out in a courtroom in front of a judge and not over any reality TV show," he added. "We've not seen any official documents or any even informal documents that pertain to her decisions."
As OK! previously reported, Michael's legal filing alleged he's "engaged in consistent caretaking of the child and established a bonded and dependent relationship with the child" over the years.
"Both petitioner and parent understood, acknowledged, accepted and behaved as though the petitioner is a parent of the child and accepted full and permanent responsibilities as a parent of the child without expectation of financial compensation," the filing continued, noting Anna had a "very sordid relationship with her mother throughout her life and went various periods of time without speaking to her."
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Anna died from stage four adrenal carcinoma in December 2023 after a nearly year-long battle with the disease.
"With the breaking heart, we are announcing that @annamarie35 is no longer with us. She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 p.m. She gave one h--- of a fight for 10 months," Mama June wrote at the time. "She passed away with her family around her."
Mama June spoke with The Sun about Anna's custody wishes.
