Back From The Brink

After a painful few years, the Dance Moms star is ready for retirement!

Abby Lee Miller thought her life was over. In April 2018, after the polarising Dance Moms star, 52, was released from Victorville federal prison in California on bankruptcy fraud charges, she found herself suffering excruciating back and neck pain. Two hospital visits later, there was still no diagnosis.

Then, suddenly, she was paralysed from the neck down. “My kidneys failed, my heart rate dropped,” she remembers. Abby’s surgeon told her they had 10 minutes to operate or she’d die – and when they did, he discovered a spinal infection that turned out to be a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Today, after chemotherapy and six spinal taps, “the cancer’s gone”, says Abby. In between physical therapy sessions, the choreographer – who’s currently confined to a wheelchair – talks her return, real friends and her plans for retirement!

What were your plans when you finished your prison sentence in 2018?