Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller was known for her brutal comebacks and no-nonsense attitude when teaching kids to dance, but she had a big lesson of her own to learn in 2017.
In October 2015, Abby was indicted by a grand jury in Pittsburgh on 20 counts of fraud, and accused of hiding earnings totalling $755,000 from her reality TV show.
She initially pleaded not guilty, but changed her plea to guilty in June 2016.
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And in May 2017, the worst happened – Abby received a sentence of 366 days behind bars.
She was also made to pay a fine of $40,000 as well as a $120,000 judgement fee.
(Image: WireImage)
Chief Judge Joy Flowers Conti said in court: “You weren’t truthful, even when you knew you were supposed to tell everything, you still weren’t truthful.
“Somehow you got caught up in the world of fame and you lost your moral compass.”
Suffering from cancer at the time, Abby served around eight months behind bars and was released in March 2018 to be transferred to a halfway house.
Prison abuse
(Image: FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
Ahead of her prison stint, Abby tearfully confessed to People Magazine: “I’m afraid of being physically abused or raped. I have to stay busy. If I thought about it every day, I’d just sit around and cry.”
In 2019 after her release, the dance teacher confessed that the “first day was the worst day”.
She told Inside Edition: “They tried to rip my eyelashes off that were extensions.”
The cruel treatment didn’t stop there. While serving time at Victorville Federal Correctional Institution, Abby explained: “They come into your room, they take your locker, they dump everything out of it.
“They take red soda pop and shake it up and spray it all over your clothes.”
Abby was later put in solitary confinement after being accused of posting a picture of herself in the visiting room on her social media, and said her thyroid and diabetes medications were taken away.
Incredible weight loss
(Image: Getty Images)
Abby lost more than 100 pounds during her prison stint, some of which was due to health complications.
In May 2018, doctors discovered she had spinal cancer that required emergency surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy. Despite now being cancer free, Abby was confined to an electric wheelchair after the treatment left her unable to walk.
Abby lost approximately 127lbs during her time in jail, with several publications reporting she had undergone gastric bypass surgery.
However, Abby insisted the weight loss was accidental when she dropped from a US size 24 (UK 28) to a US 16 (UK 20).
Grisly meal plan
Us Weekly delved into what prison menus Abby would have faced during her jail stint – and despite declaring her favourite commissary snack was ramen noodles, prison food was rather varied.
On Sundays, Abby tucked into scrambled eggs or peanut butter, roast potatoes, gravy, biscuits and fruit.
For dinner, the publication reported she could tuck into roast beef, black-eyed peas, steamed rice and green beans.
Mondays’ menu included beef or soy tacos, vegetable soup, chicken salad wraps and pasta salad.
Wednesdays came with hamburgers and french fries followed by pasta, while the rest of the week offered baked chicken and breaded fish sandwiches.
Rule break
(Image: GC Images)
Abby didn’t quite keep her nose clean in prison, as she got into trouble just three months into her sentence.
According to RadarOnline, the star was caught taking fruit from the dining hall back to her cell, which was a “total violation”.
A source said: “Abby’s locker and bunk area got shook down last week because they were looking for contraband.”
Abby was given extra duty to rake rocks outside for one day for the rule break, and had to sit outside the counsellor’s office for two hours while staff decided on her punishment.
The star also had to undergo strip searches as standard procedure, and apparently cried the first time she had to undergo the humiliating ordeal.
A source claimed: “She didn’t cry this time, though. But she did tell the other inmates afterwards that she couldn’t believe the guards did that to her.”
No visitors
(Image: Getty Images)
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Though Abby’s hairstylist did come to see her behind bars, she lashed out at her Dance Moms co-stars who never once headed to the visitation room to see her.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight last year, Abby said: “Shame on you. Shame on you after what I did for you, for your children – helped make you a lot of money. You couldn’t come to visit me for eight and a half months? You couldn’t send a card, a letter?”
She did, however, receive fan mail from her young fans – but fumed at her co-stars for “dumping” her in her time of need.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
