Love her or hate her, Abby Lee Miller has solidified her standing as an iconic figure of the 2010s era of controversial reality TV. Known for her quotable insults, questionable teaching style, and cutthroat competitiveness, Miller is a reality personality who dominated the Lifetime network for almost a decade on the hit show Dance Moms.
During the tail end of the show, and the years after Miller’s early departure from the series, many adverse events hit her life and were exposed to the public eye. In 2015, viewers everywhere were shocked when she was indicted and pleaded guilty to financial fraud charges, leading her to serve an eight-month sentence in a California prison. Due to her sentencing, Miller left her contract with Lifetime early and parted ways with Dance Moms.
When all seemed to be looking upward after she had served her sentence, she faced a serious health scare. In 2018, only one month after her release from prison, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, Burkitt lymphoma. After undergoing emergency surgery and going through numerous rounds of chemotherapy, Miller was declared cancer-free.
The COVID-19 pandemic added more trouble as travel wasn’t advised and she had to quarantine in a hotel with dwindling finances. Through the ongoing hardships over the years, she has continued to remain present and passionate in the world of children’s dance.
As the years have passed and the dancers of the show have grown up and pursued ventures outside of the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC), Miller has had less of the public eye glaring at her. Nevertheless, she continues to garner social media attention through her lack of filter and sometimes extremely concerning statements. In 2023, she sparked outrage after declaring her attraction to high school-aged athletes on the Sofia with an F podcast. While she tried to clarify what she meant by that statement, it had already caused a frenzy of backlash on TikTok.
Miller continues to reminisce about her time starring in a reality series publicly on her very own Leave It On The Dance Floor podcast. Episodes for the podcast on average range from an hour to an hour and a half long, usually featuring a guest host. Podcast topics range from Dance Moms episode recaps, discussions of her life journey, and answering questions from fans.
The podcast also has guest appearances from beloved child dance stars from the show such as Madison “Maddie” Ziegler and Kalani Hilliker. The podcast even featured her infamous dance instructor nemesis, Cathy Nesbitt-Stein of the Candy Apples Dance Center where they rehashed old drama between the two of them and the moms.
In terms of her career, Miller is still a figurehead at the ALDC in Los Angeles, formerly located in Pittsburgh. She has a new batch of young aspiring performers who she continues to coach alongside others like Gianna Martello, who was also involved in the show. She tours around the U.S. and Mexico where she hosts dance workshops (tickets can be found online on ShowClix). Zoom events hosted by her and the ALDC are also available to those who register to save their spot.
Even through the challenges she has faced with her health and the law, Miller has maintained her social media presence as well as her career coaching talented dancers at her studio. Despite facing a lot of opposition for her bluntness and aggressive taunts aimed at young dancers, she continues to attempt to remain relevant in the public eye.
It seems that Dance Moms is a product of its time, at the height of the glory days of reality TV following the shift of the aftermath of the Writer’s Guild of America strike of 2007-2008. While the show and its personalities gained a fanbase and millions of viewers during its run, would it have lasted as long as it did if the show had aired today?
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