Abby Lee Miller is opening up about her notable absence from Lifetime’s recent “Dance Moms” reunion.
During a May 9 appearance on Bethenny Frankel’s “Just B“ podcast, Miller said she believes she wasn’t invited to the event because her former students “can’t face” her.
“They know they would never be where they are today if it wasn’t for the show,” she told Frankel.
On the original show, which aired on Lifetime from 2011 to 2019, Miller trained a team of young dancers for weekly competitions. The title of the reality TV show comes from the frequent fights between Miller and the dancers' moms, often due to Miller's strict rules and seemingly unorthodox methods.
The reunion brought back former stars JoJo Siwa, Chloe Lukasiak, Brooke and Paige Hyland, Kendall Vertes, Kalani Hilliker as well as their moms.
Miller specifically called out the Hyland family in her comments about not being asked back for the reunion. The TV star said on Frankel's podcast that she was “very close” to Brooke and Paige Hyland as their mom, Kelly Hyland, was a former pupil.
“(Kelly Hyland) left, got married, had kids, brought them to my studio at 2 years old, and stayed until the show started. So my point is, if this was so toxic for all these kids, why did they come back at 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7?”
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“The kids came back. There were other studios in town. Mine was the best,” she added.
TODAY.com has reached out to Lifetime for comment on Miller's absence from "Dance Moms: The Reunion."
In addition to Miller, former “Dance Moms” stars Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler and Nia Sioux did not attend the reunion.
While looking back on the show that made her a star, Maddie Ziegler told Cosmopolitan in June 2022 that the program was a “toxic environment” for her.
“I was like, ‘This is not for me. I can’t do this,’” she recalled of leaving the show. “I haven’t spoken to (Miller) since.”
In response to Ziegler's comments, Miller took to her YouTube channel where she shared her side of the story.
“What I don’t understand about the pressure, the ‘toxic’ situation — if it was so toxic, why did you keep doing it?” Miller asked, adding, “I tried to quit many a time, and I was forced to come back to set because I signed a contract.”
“Newsflash: the kids in the original cast never had a contract,” Miller claimed. “The moms had a contract, but the kids, well, nobody wanted to pay the money and go through the process so they were just kind of there on a handshake.”
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