JoJo Siwa 'Liked' Abby Lee Miller Being Tough on Her During 'Dance Moms' Filming: 'I Wanted to Be Good'

JoJo Siwa is defending Abby Lee Miller's teaching style.

During a Wednesday, April 10, appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, the "Karma" singer, 20, opened up about what it was like getting her start on the hit reality series Dance Moms and studying under the infamously intense instructor, 58.

"I saw what she was like on TV and I somehow as a kid could always see the bigger picture," she said of working with Miller on the show, which she joined in 2014.

"But I will say, I have had teachers worse than Abby. Like she's not the worst that I've had. Toughness-wise, mean-wise. And I liked it," Siwa admitted. "Like I wanted to be good, and she was right."

“But like, Dance Moms. There wasn't anything besides like, tough love almost, you know what I mean? Like she wanted us to be the best." the young performer noted.

Siwa starred alongside the likes of Maddie Ziegler on the series that chronicled a competition dance team at a studio in Pennsylvania and the drama with their mothers. According to the Nickelodeon star, her mom, Jessalynn Siwa, would rage when she ended up at the bottom of the pyramid.

"And I was like, 'No mom, because the person at the top of the pyramid gets, 'Congratulations, you're at the top.' The person at the bottom though, gets the whole storyline of the TV show.' And she was like, 'How the f--- do you know that?'" she explained. "I'd be like, 'It literally doesn't matter. Like we are making a TV show.' And so I always kind of realized that."

"The thing is, is I was there to make a TV show. She was there to make a TV show. And that is how dance teachers are," the "Worldwide Party" artist said giving Miller the benefit of the doubt "And Dance Moms really just put that on display."

Despite Siwa understanding the method to Miller's madness, Ziegler was not as forgiving towards her former dance teacher.

"She trained me, she helped me, but also, I knew I would be okay without her and I was sick of being in a toxic environment," the West Side Story actress, 21, said in a 2022 interview. "I was like, ‘This is not for me. I can’t do this.’ I haven’t spoken to her since.”

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