Why Abby Lee Miller felt ‘like a whore’ on ‘Dance Moms’
Abby Lee Miller “cried every day” on the set of “Dance Moms,” she revealed in a new interview, while reflecting on what made her “feel like a whore” on the show.
“Entertainment Tonight” showed Miller viral memes of herself so she could provide more context. In one instance, the outlet played an old clip of her crying and saying, “I feel like a whore.”
“What the situation was is that the producers were asking me to do something, I didn’t want to do it,” Miller explained.
She continued: “They said, ‘We’re not going to pay you, you’re going to be fined $80,000 or $10,000,’ And I said, ‘I’m not doing it.’”
“They said, ‘Well, we’re going to fine you.’ So I probably did it, and I feel like a whore because I’m getting paid to do things I don’t want to do,” she added.
The Post reached out to Lifetime, which airs “Dance Moms,” and Miller for comment.
The hit series premiered in 2011, following a group of moms whose kids were on a competition team at Miller’s dance company in Pittsburgh, called the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC).
Although Miller often discouraged the girls from crying, even after she yelled at them, she admitted to “ET” that she found herself tearing up many of the days they filmed.
“I probably cried every day on set,” she said. “So I know that the producers used to really work me up.”
Miller also claimed the producers wanted to “stir the pot” before she interacted with the moms and the students.
“Dance Moms” came to a halt after eight seasons. The final episode aired in September 2019, and nine months later, Miller was dogged by racism accusations in the wake of the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police.
In June 2020, Adriana Smith — whose daughter, Kamryn, filmed Season 8 — claimed Miller had made racist remarks. This caused Miller’s spinoff series, “Abby’s Virtual Dance Off,” to be canceled before airing.
Miller apologized.
Many of the girls featured on “Dance Moms” have gone on to become social media stars — including viral sensation JoJo Siwa.
While speaking with Cosmopolitan last year, breakout star Maddie Ziegler said that she had to quit the show in 2016 for her own mental health.
“I had more stress [on the show] than I did once I left,” Ziegler said. “I have dissociated so much from that time.”
Miller has weathered on- and off-screen drama.
She spent eight months in prison for financial fraud. Shortly after her 2018 release, she was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a rare but highly aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system.
The condition requires her to use a wheelchair, as it left her paralyzed from the neck down.
In 2019, she announced she is free of cancer.
Meanwhile, her longtime Pittsburgh dance studio sold in December for $300,000.
“I’m not in Pittsburgh teaching,” she explained on Instagram after The Post reported the news of the sale.
“I’m all over the world teaching. It was time. And I’m very proud to say that my studio, my building, the property that my parents gave their life savings to buy, is going to a very great business. It’s going to somebody that needed it, somebody that wanted it. Not another dance teacher … the dance studio be will used as a daycare center.”
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