Everything We Know About Abby Lee Miller's Time In Prison
Before Abby Lee Miller bagged herself a spot on "Dance Moms," she was in a dire financial state. According to TMZ, the then-dance studio owner filed for bankruptcy in 2010 after accruing over $400,000 in real estate taxes. While her finances improved in 2011 after joining the hit reality show, the filing still stood. Then, in 2015, Miller was charged with bankruptcy fraud for keeping $775,000 of her "Dance Moms" income concealed from creditors. Furthermore, prosecutors alleged that she had brought $120,000 worth of undisclosed income from Australia through United States customs in 2014.
Miller managed to smuggle the large sum into the country by distributing it in smaller amounts to her employees in bags. It's worth noting that U.S. Customs laws require passengers to declare amounts greater than $10,000. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted Miller on 20 counts of fraud in October 2015 and she first pleaded not guilty to the bankruptcy charges. However, in 2016, Miller changed her plea, acknowledging one guilty count relating to bankruptcy fraud and another regarding her custom laws violation. In May 2017, the reality star was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for fraud.
Additionally, she had to shell out $40,000 in fines and a further $120,000 to cover her customs violation. The star choreographer only spent eight months in prison and was released in March 2018. In the years that followed, Miller shared all the highs and lows of her time behind bars.
Abby Lee Miller claimed that the prison guards mistreated her
In a clip from Abby Lee Miller's spinoff show "Dance Moms: Abby Tells All," we witnessed the reality TV star eating mac and cheese on the car ride to prison. As she neared the correctional center, Miller started sobbing while voicing her fears about being abused and threatened by her fellow inmates. However, when she got to prison, Miller quickly realized that the guards were the people she should've been worried about. Appearing on "Good Morning America" following her release, Miller shared that she believed prison security targeted her because she was famous. The choreographer claimed that the guards tried to ruin her clothes by pouring soda on them.
She elaborated about the alleged mistreatment: "When [...] somebody in power screams the F-word at you over and over again; to me, that's offensive." Miller continued, "That's violent to me. That went on. A lot." The "Dance Moms" alum also recalled how the guards tried to pluck out her false eyelashes and yelled at her on her very first day inside. Meanwhile, in a 2019 New York Post interview, Miller admitted that she couldn't quite comprehend why the prison security picked on her so much, suggesting that they derived some sort of sadistic delight from her fear. Their behavior negatively affected Miller's life outside prison too, with the reality star confessing, "I have a little bit of PTSD when I hear a big bang or a loud noise or keys — I jump out of my skin."
Abby Lee Miller made lots of friends and some enemies in prison
Sadly, Abby Lee Miller reportedly wasn't very well-liked by inmates either. A source disclosed to Radar Online that the "Dance Moms" alum mostly spent her days crying in her bed and reading romance novels. Miller's sadness apparently irked one of her inmates, and she screamed "She ain't s***!" at her. The two women then got into a verbal spat over it. A month after the supposed incident occurred, another insider informed Radar Online that the reality star had started paying an inmate commissary credit in exchange for her protection.
They further divulged that Miller made the right choice with her guard by picking someone who scared her fellow prisoners. Despite the initial hiccups, though, she reportedly didn't take too long to find her place. A prison source revealed to Radar Online that she had joined a prison group, detailing, "Abby Lee has latched onto a group of women known as 'the holy rollers.'" They added, "They really welcomed her with open arms and she has finally found her clique. She is even telling people that she's found god!"
The group consisted of several intimidating women, so Miller fit in well. Additionally, the insider reckoned that the dance teacher partook in their everyday activities like bible reading and hymn chanting. Despite all of her supposed ups and downs, Miller had nothing but good things to say about the generosity and kindness of her fellow inmates when she spoke to Build in 2020.
Abby Lee Miller's former Dance Moms co-stars didn't reach out to her back then
Abby Lee Miller's former "Dance Moms" co-stars wanted nothing to do with her when she was in prison. When the in-demand instructor spoke to Entertainment Tonight in 2022, Miller shared that she had received letters from young women all around the world while incarcerated, but her ex-castmates never bothered to check in. She clapped back at them by saying: "Shame on you. Shame on you after what I did for you, for your children — helped make you a lot of money." Miller continued, "You couldn't come to visit me for eight and a half months? You couldn't send a card, a letter?" As far as the reality star is concerned, her former co-stars were pleased to be around Miller when she was bettering their lives and contributing to their success. However, they wanted nothing to do with her when she was down and out.
Ultimately, their actions helped Miller understand that they could never be her true friends if they didn't support her in her time of need. The "Dance Moms" alum discussed a similar perspective shift regarding the generosity of her inmates in her Build interview. The choreographer remembered how an inmate offered her hard-earned shoes after noticing she didn't have any. The sweet gesture made Miller realize that her former castmates wouldn't even offer her the bare minimum. Although several co-stars have severed ties because of Miller's aggressive behavior on the show, star pupil Jojo Siwa doesn't seem to harbor any ill will towards her.
Abby Lee Miller believed her prison time indirectly led to her medical conditions
When Abby Lee Miller was in the halfway house, following her release from prison, she faced a medical emergency that the dance instructor later attributed to her time behind bars. During a 2020 appearance on "The Doctors," Miller detailed visiting several doctors in a short span of time to figure out why she had a headache, a neck ache that was actively getting worse, and generally felt uneasy overall. While hospital staff tried to figure out the reason for her worrying symptoms, the "Dance Moms" alum became paralyzed from the neck down.
A CT Myelogram showed that she had a growth around her spine so doctors rushed her into emergency surgery. However, while she was on the table, they discovered that Miller had a cancer called Burkitt Lymphoma. Miller beat cancer around 2019 but she still had to use a wheelchair to move around. Speaking to People in 2019, she asserted that her health deteriorated because she stopped taking her diabetes medication "cold turkey" on her doctor's advice.
However, in the aftermath, she learned that they shouldn't have advised her to stop at once but rather to reduce her dependency until her body didn't need it anymore. While Miller thought back on her prison stint on the "Just B with Bethenny Frankel" podcast, the former reality star stated emphatically: "That's why I'm in a wheelchair, because in prison I was punished and taken off all my medication, cold turkey."
Abby Lee Miller tried to make the most of her prison stint
A few months before Abby Lee Miller reported to prison, she underwent a gastric sleeve surgery. As a result, she ultimately left 100 pounds lighter, as Entertainment Tonight reported at the time. However, it wouldn't be fair to attribute her weight loss entirely to the cosmetic procedure because the "Dance Moms" alum put in the hard work while serving her time too. When Miller was interviewed on Avalon TV in 2023, she boasted about reading nearly 200 books while behind bars. And, every time she finished a chapter, the reality star did 50 leg lifts to get some movement in.
Likewise, in her Build interview, she acknowledged that she wouldn't have been able to achieve her weight loss goals in the outside world because the in-demand choreographer was always focused on other, more pressing matters. Miller also granted that the prison's poor food quality made her journey significantly easier. When Miller looked back on her prison sentence on "Good Morning America," she reasoned that her time could've been better spent on more productive ventures.
"Wouldn't I have done better teaching underprivileged children to dance or I mean just working, you know, fine me, whatever," she charged, fuming, "It's absolutely asinine, the entire thing." Miller expressed similar thoughts about women's prison in a 2019 chat with Us Weekly, noting that she felt frustrated by how men were given tons of learning opportunities behind bars while women were mostly confined to kitchen duties.