Abby Lee Miller Says Her Favorite Type Of Kid Is One That Does Not Have A Good Mom In The Picture
She claimed that she enjoyed doing everything for a kid that didn't have a mom to do it for them.
DFree / Shutterstock Most people know Abby Lee Miller from the popular television show "Dance Moms," where she appeared as the dance instructor and founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company.
Throughout the years since the show ended in 2019, Miller has not shied away from the spotlight, and in a recent clip from her podcast, "Leave It On The Dance Floor," Miller was criticized for saying what her favorite type of kid to work with is.
She explained that her favorite type of kid is one that does not have an involved mother.
“The kid that's my favorite is a kid that really doesn't have a good mom that’s in the picture,” the former "Dance Moms" choreographer revealed. She added that she "looked at that over history," to come to this conclusion.
"When there's a mom there to do for their kid, to get the right outfit, to get the right earrings or the right headpiece, or the tights, or the costume. I don't need to do it," she said. "But when the mom's not doing that, I do it for the kid."
Miller was previously accused of fostering a 'toxic environment' on the show.
During a 2022 interview with Cosmopolitan, Maddie Ziegler, who was one of Miller's standout students until her 2016 exit, revealed that she now was “at peace” with the fact that she and the notoriously strict dance coach are no longer in communication.
"She was distraught [when I left]. For the longest time, we felt so guilty," recalled Ziegler. "She trained me, she helped me, but also, I knew I would be OK without her and I was sick of being in a toxic environment."
"I was like, 'This is not for me. I can’t do this.' I haven’t spoken to her since," she added, with the magazine noting that Ziegler doesn’t plan on speaking to Miller ever again.
The 21-year-old admitted that her family tried to have her leave the series earlier. "But when you’re in a contract, it’s really hard. Eventually, I finally got out," she explained.
Miller ended up responding to Ziegler's claims on her YouTube channel shortly after the interview went live. She said that she only remembered Ziegler as being "a kid I loved."
"What I don’t understand about the pressure, the ‘toxic’ situation — if it was so toxic, why did you keep doing it?" Miller snarkily asked.
"Newsflash: the kids in the original cast never had a contract," Miller said. "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."
"I thought she wanted to be there ... If she said, 'I don’t want to go, I’m not going,' kicking and screaming, stomping her feet, I’m sure her mother wouldn’t have brought her — or she would have come and talked to me about it. She never did that," Miller continued, even taking credit for Ziegler's current success.
However, Ziegler hasn't been the only one who accused Miller of traumatizing her students.
Cheryl Burke, who replaced Miller on season eight of "Dance Moms," shared that she felt many of the girls were traumatized by Miller. But, of course, Miller was quick to refute those claims.
"I think if anybody had to do with any traumatizing, it was definitely the producers creating chaos between the moms and myself," Miller told Us Weekly. "And it’s a TV show, it’s a reality TV show. You know what you sign up for."
Whether or not Miller believes that she created a harmful environment for her students during their time on the reality show, it's still a troublesome admission to reveal that the best type of child to work with is one that doesn't have a good mother in their lives. That dynamic can be harmful and it shouldn't be a wish for any child to experience.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.