Abby Lee Miller, Maddie Ziegler Matt Baron/Shutterstock; David Fisher/Shutterstock
They’re not leaving it on the dance floor. Abby Lee MillerIs weighing in after the former Dance Moms Star Maddie Ziegler claimed the reality show was a “toxic” environment.
“What I don’t understand [about] the pressure, the ‘toxic’ situation — if it was so toxic, why did you keep doing it?” the former Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition Judge, 56, replied in a YouTube clip posted on Wednesday, July 15. “I had to [and] I tried to quit many a time and I was forced to come back to set because I signed a contract.”
Miller added: “Newsflash: the kids in the original cast never had a contract. The moms had a contract, but the kids, well … they were just kind of there on a handshake. I thought [Maddie]I wanted to be there. If she said, ‘I don’t want to go, I’m not going,’ kicking and screaming, stomping her feet, I’m sure her mother wouldn’t have brought her — or she would have come and talked to me about it. She never did that.”
Ziegler, then 19, was adamant about the coaching style of Abby Lee Dance Company founder. Dance Moms days during a Cosmopolitan interview.
“[Abby]It was disfigured [when I left]. For the longest time, we felt so guilty,” the Fallout Star claimed earlier in the month. “She trained me, she helped me, but also, I knew I would be OK without her and I was sick of being in a toxic environment. I was like, ‘This is not for me. I can’t do this.’ I haven’t spoken to her since. I feel at peace.”
The reality TV series — which ran for eight seasons on Lifetime — premiered in 2011, showcasing the weekly schedule of the ALDC’s junior elite competition team and the lengths their mothers went to get them to the top of the pyramid. Ziegler was Ziegler’s younger sister. Mackenzie ZieglerAs well as Nia Sioux, Chloe Lukasiak, Brooke HylandAnd Paige Hyland.
Maddie and Mackenzie, now 18 years old, have left the show after six seasons of dancing. Dance Moms In December 2015, their mother also passed away. Melissa Gisoni. Their tumultuous exit was caught on camera — with Miller locking herself in an office and weeping. Miller’s family has been open about their position since then.
“We don’t keep in contact,” the West Side Story Actress exclusively told Us Weekly June 2018, of her former teacher. “But I wish her the best.”
The Abby’s Studio Rescue alum further alleged in her YouTube video on Wednesday — which Maddie has yet to publicly address — that her former student felt “at home” at the ALDC studio, which was “where everybody knew her name” before she became a star.
“I was fighting for everything, for these kids to be the best that they could be on television,” Miller said, calling Maddie a “kid that I loved” and alleging that she was responsible for the former So You Think You Can Dance judge’s frequent collaborations with Sia. “I know that what I did for Maddie, with Maddie, helped her succeed.”
