Chloé Lukasiak, JoJo Siwa, Paige and Brooke Hyland, Kalani Hilliker, and Kendall Vertes all returned, along with Paige and Brooke’s mom, Kelly, Kalani’s mom, Kira, Kendall’s mom, Jill, JoJo’s mom, Jessalynn, and a special appearance from Chloé’s mom, Christi. Abby Lee Miller, however, was not present during this reunion.
And now, Abby has broken her silence on why she believes she wasn’t invited to the reunion.
On the May 9th episode of the Just B with Bethenny Frankel podcast, Abby said, “I think the kids can’t face me because they know they would never be where they are today if it wasn’t for the show.”
“There’s two little girls named Brooke and Paige Hyland who I was very close to, much closer emotionally and family-wise than any of the other kids. Their mother was in my original competition team when I was 14 years old — their mother,” she continued. “And she stayed at my studio, then she left, got married, had kids, brought them to my studio at two years old, and stayed until the show started.”
Kelly, Brooke, and Paige left the Abby Lee Dance Center during Season 4 after a physical fight between Kelly and Abby occurred at a dance competition. At the time, Abby spontaneously brought Kalani onto the competition team, and Kelly believed it was because she was trying to push Brooke out. In the reunion, Kelly expressed her regret for the decision to pull her kids out of ALDC and felt “guilty” for ending her kids’ dance careers.
“And what you don’t read, what you don’t read that Lifetime didn’t want anyone to know. They wanted me to be this down and out, po-dunk, heavy set dance teacher, screaming at these little kids because that made good TV,” Abby said.
“Nobody talks about the kids that I’ve had in, drum roll please, 25 Broadway shows. Did you read that anywhere? 25 Broadway shows. I have had kids from Pittsburgh in, that I took, that I drove their asses back and forth to the auditions,” finished Abby.
According to People, a source claimed that while there are cast members “who say they know they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Dance Moms,” many have complicated feelings about Abby. “Some of those involved decided that they would only be a part of the reunion if Abby wasn’t,” the source said.
While many of the cast members talked about their “complicated” relationship with Abby, some even expressed that they hope to forgive her one day, including Kelly, who said she’d try to rekindle their relationship if Abby took the first step and called to apologize.
Listen to Abby’s full podcast episode here. Dance Moms: The Reunion is currently streaming on Lifetime.