ABBY Lee Miller is a famous dance coach, best known for her strict and over-the-top antics on her hit show.
The reality TV star has been wheelchair-bound for some time now.
Why is Abby Lee Miller using a wheelchair?
In 2018, Abby Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
The cancer was in her spine and after spinal surgery, she went into remission in September of that year.
However, after her battle with cancer, she was left needing a wheelchair after becoming paraplegic.
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According to the Lymphoma Research Foundation, "Burkitt's Lymphoma is a rare but highly aggressive (fast-growing) lymphoma.
"This disease may affect the jaw, central nervous system, bowel, kidneys, ovaries, or other organs. Burkitt lymphoma may spread to the central nervous system."
Due to the chemotherapy Abby received, her bones are brittle and prone to breakage.
She told ET that she had broken four bones in her right leg, which has been a huge setback in her ability to walk again.
What has Abby Lee Miller said about her health struggles?
In March 2023, Abby sat down with ET and opened up about her health struggles and upcoming procedures.
She spoke about the "freak accident" that set her back in her journey to walking again.
She told ET: "I just wanna walk. I walked onto 11 flights. I take the chair down to the bridge and then step onto the flight and walk on.
"And then this happened, so it set me back."
The choreographer has maintained her sense of humor, calling her leg 'bionic' and feeling like she "can leap buildings in a single bound."
How is Abby Lee Miller doing now?
The founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company took over our TV screens in the early 2010s.
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The choreographer/coach and her dance troupe became reality TV titans. The show ran for eight seasons from 2011 until 2019.
Abby led the show until 2016, and in 2017 she was sentenced to a year in prison for bankruptcy fraud.
After her incarceration and health issues, Abby continues to teach young dancers but she is also now an Instagram star and podcaster.
In 2018, she was released from prison due to her ongoing health issues.
In October 2021, Lee told HollywoodLife she was still struggling with her health.
“[During COVID I had] another surgery on my spine — my lumbar region that was the original problem years ago — and that’s why I went to that doctor because my leg was going numb when I was driving in all this LA traffic so I knew something was wrong,” Abby Lee told HollywoodLife, revealing she had Spondylolisthesis that was getting “worse and worse.”
She said she went to "in-patient rehab," and following that, underwent restorative surgery.
She told the outlet she plans to get out of her wheelchair and walk again.
“I need me to coach me,” she stated. “I need an Abby Lee person to whip my butt into shape and make me the best I can be.”
It was announced that Abby will not be a part of the new Lifetime series, Dance Moms: The Reunion, which begins airing on May 1, 2024.
In March 2024, a source told People that a part of the returning original cast requested Abby be excluded from the show.
"At this point everyone has gone through different eras, had time to reflect and there’s been a lot that Abby put them through emotionally and physically and they just didn’t want to relive that," the source says.
