THEY MADE HEADLINES FOR THEIR QUESTIONABLE DECISIONS AND WERE THE BUTT OF LATE-NIGHT JOKES. HERE’S WHAT CAME NEXT.
TAN MOM
THEN
In 2012 , Patricia Krentcil went viral after the mom of five was charged with child endangerment for bringing her 5-year-old to a tanning salon in Nutley, N.J. The “tanorexic” was ultimately vindicated (she claimed her daughter had gotten sunburned from playing outside) but was banned from tanning salons in her area and became an object of ridicule.
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The still-bronzed 57-year-old parlayed her infamy into a position as a “Wack Packer” on The Howard Stern Show , a book deal ( The Color Tan came out in December 2024) and even vied for a U.S . Senate seat in Florida, running as a pro-LGBTQ Republican before dropping out because of health issues. Her reality show, Tan to 10 (on Prime Video), documents her makeover — with the help of a plastic surgeon and drag queens — in the wake of her husband’s death from cancer.
OCTOMOM
THEN
She was one of the most hated people in America. In 2009, Nadya Suleman made headlines when she delivered the first surviving octuplets in history. An unemployed single mom of six, she was accused of being a “welfare queen” then attacked for posing nude, stripping and taking up X-rated celebrity boxing to support her family.
“There were no healthy opportunities for Octomom,” Nadya said of how she supported her family.
MAMA JUNE
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June Shannon won hearts as the coupon-clipping Georgia pageant mom to Alana “ Honey Boo Boo ,” doling out “special juice” (Mountain Dew) to rev her up on Toddlers and Tiaras in 2011. The breakout stars introduced America to “sketti” (pasta, ketchup, butter) on their own show before it was cancelled when it was revealed that June had reconciled with an ex who’d spent time in prison for sexually molesting one of her other daughters.
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The drama keeps coming: Multiple reality series have chronicled the 45-year-old’s attempts at redemption — from undergoing bariatric surgery and plastic surgery to heading to rehab after an arrest for a $3,000-a-day cocaine addiction to her estrangement from her children. Following the 2023 cancer death of her eldest child, Anna Cardwell, June went to court to win custody of her grandchild, all of which was documented on the We TV series Mama June: Family Crisis , which returns in June.
Some criticized the show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo as “ hicksploitation .”
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With the octuplets now 16, the 49-year-old, a recent grandma, is a counselor who says her life in the three-bedroom condo she shares with her kids revolves around “God, food and fitness.” After years out of the spotlight, she’s telling her story in Lifetime’s biopic I Was Octomom and docuseries Confessions of Octomom. The doctor who implanted her with a total of 12 embryos was accused of “gross negligence” and had his license revoked.
KATE GOSSELIN
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The drill-sergeant Pennsylvania mom of adorable twins and sextuplets fascinated viewers on Jon & Kate Plus 8 ; but things turned for the onetime nurse with her 2009 divorce from Jon. A planned talk show was scrapped after she was deemed too controversial by TV execs — there were rumors, which she denied, that she was dating her bodyguard — and she tanked on Dancing With the Stars , performing a memorably bad paso doble with partner Tony Dovolani .
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The 49-year-old continued to work the reality TV circuit, including a short-lived dating show, but faced backlash as it was revealed that two of the sextuplets, Hannah and Collin, had cut ties with her to live with their dad, Jon Gosselin . Collin later accused his mother of isolating him from his siblings, leaving him “zip-tied” in a locked room outfitted with cameras. (She’s said he “received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years” and has “a distorted perception of reality.”) Kate has reportedly obtained a registered nurse license where she now resides in North Carolina.