‘Dance Moms’ Star Abby Lee Miller Claims She Was Treated ‘Like Crap’ In the Past 

Although she is known for her “save your tears for the pillow” treatment toward her dancers, Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller claims she has also experienced unfair treatment by others in the past.

While promoting her and her former nemesis Cathy Nesbitt-Stein’s new show, Abby vs. Cathy: Hit the 8, Miller spoke to InTouch about life after her 2019 firing from Dance Moms.

“I think I really needed a break, and I wanted to do other things, which I’ve done, I’m still doing,” she explained. “And traveling and touring and just my health too.”

The dance coach further shared, “I had broken my leg, shattered it, and then rehabbed and got back and got better and then broke it again. My wheelchair slammed me into a wall so hard and so fast it shattered the bones. So I was dealing with all of that.”

Miller further explained that she was “picky” about returning to the small screen, noting she didn’t want to do a format similar to Dance Moms.

“I needed the right opportunity to present itself. Everybody kept wanting me to do the same thing, and I didn’t want to do that,” she continued.

In the new show, 128 dancers, ages 8 to 16, will face off over seven dance rounds, with the winner taking $10,000.

“So this was wonderful, and all the parents left very happy, very appreciative, and respectful,” Miller said, referring to the new show. “They got the lunch right. They had the greatest hair and makeup. I had Diana Kaz again doing my hair and my makeup, and it was an amazing crew. The DP, the lighting guys, the sound guys, the director — everybody was so kind and respectful. Like, ‘Wow, we have Abby Lee Miller here.’ ‘Wow, we have Cathy here; this is going to be great.’”

Miller also said the treatment on the new show’s set is vastly different from Dance Moms.

“Instead of treating us like crap, just pushing and pushing and pushing until you made everybody so miserable that they would say anything you wanted them to say,” she pointed out. “That was my experience before, and this was certainly better.”

Along with the positive treatment she has received, Miller said the show has a different vibe, with no criticism of her blunt feedback to dancers.

“It was such a different vibe; I didn’t have to. And the kids weren’t training with us,” she noted. “We were giving them constructive criticism. And then when they made it through the rounds, they came back again, they listened, they applied the corrections… Well, I mean, you have to watch. Some did, some did not.”

Miller said that since the dancers weren’t representing her or her studio, she didn’t have to worry about drama and could push them to be “the best” they can be.

Regarding her long-time frenemy, Nesbitt-Stein, Miller stated the drama between them on Dance Moms is non-existent these days.

“During COVID, we kind of reconciled and gave our apologies, and you know, mended some ugly wounds,” she added. “But then after that, we shot a YouTube video. It’s on my YouTube channel at the Real Abby Lee Miller, where we kind of let bygones be bygones and let’s move on.”