Ex-‘Dance Moms’ star Abby Lee Miller criticizes show’s network, producers
Former "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller awaits sentencing for her fraud conviction. Credit: Getty Images / Frazer Harrison
“Dance Moms” star Abby Lee Miller, who quit the reality show Sunday as she awaits sentencing for her fraud conviction last year, has lambasted the show’s network and producers over an incident she says they staged at a weekend dance competition.
“Lifetime and [production company] Collins Avenue and everybody they employ has zero respect for me,” Miller, 50, told “E! News” in a video interview posted online Thursday. “Zero respect for my business.”
She said that at a competition on Sunday featuring more than 50 students from her studio, the producer “had some lunatic woman, who I’ve never seen before, never met, never saw her kid dance, come and chase me through the audience. Now, this woman wants to be on the TV show.”
Miller said that in front of her students and their families, the woman said things to her like “Your team left you and those girls hate you!”
“It just got bigger and bigger and louder and louder, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is destroying my livelihood, which is my studio business.’ The TV show can end at any moment. They’ve been very clear telling me that in my contract,” Miller concluded, snapping her fingers.
Collins Avenue did not respond to a Newsday request for comment. A representative for Lifetime had no comment.
Deadline.com reported on March 29 that following Miller’s resignation, Lifetime hired “Dancing With the Stars” ballroom dancer Cheryl Burke as guest choreographer for the upcoming second half of “Dance Moms” season 7. Miller finished shooting the season over the weekend, Deadline said, and Burke would be needed for some days of additional footage.
The beleaguered Miller pleaded guilty in June to concealing $775,000 from a bankruptcy court after filing for Chapter 11. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 8.
