“Abby Lee Miller Court: 2017” may be the newest reality TV show hit, much to the chagrin of the Dance Moms star who is imminently set to return to court for sentencing.
The 51-year-old Miller, who is set to return to Pittsburgh federal court on May 8, plead guilty last year for conducting bankruptcy fraud and smuggling money. According to People , Abby Lee was accused of covering up $775,000 in income from Dance Moms in addition to smuggling “thousands of Australian dollars she brought into the United States in separate plastic bags.”
The reality TV star returned to the U.S. this week after being granted a stay in execution in order to continue in her business affairs.
Abby Lee Miller’s 2017 court documents revealed that the television star — and, according to Radar Online , Maddie Ziegler — had been out of the country throughout much of February and early March for a court-approved “business trip.”
According to People , citing those documents, “The business opportunities would require Ms. Miller to travel to Cancun from March 3 to March 7, 2017. If permitted to travel, Ms. Miller will provide the Government, in advance, the details of her business trip. The Government has no objection to this Motion.”
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The reality TV star also traveled to London and Newcastle, England last month as well.
For her own part, Abby Lee Miller’s 2017 sentencing has her quite “ scared to death ,” as she noted on the podcast Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss where she stated that “I thought I was on the up and up, but I wasn’t. I think if I didn’t have a sense of humor and I couldn’t crack jokes now and then I would have gone insane.”
“I’m not going to deny anything, they were my mistakes,” Abby continued. “I am taking full responsibility for them, I have to. There’s no passing the buck. … If I did it wrong, I was wrong.”
It is believed that Abby Lee Miller’s 2017 sentencing could net her as much as 24-30 months in prison, although her attorney claims the punishment should just range from probation to six months, as no creditors were harmed.
With so much up in the air regarding Miller’s fate, however, the rumor mill has been churning regarding the future of Dance Moms , with — or without — her.
“If Miller ends up behind bars, she will obviously miss out on Dance Moms ,” noted the Christian Post . “However, it is even unclear if the show will go on without her. After all, she has been and still is an important part of the show.”
Most believe, however, that the drawn-out period until sentencing should give Abby Lee enough time to at least wrap up filming for the seventh season of the Lifetime hit show.
Regardless of what happens with Abby Lee Miller’s 2017 court appearance, one star that is even more unlikely to show up on Dance Moms is Maddie Ziegler. The 14-year-old Ziegler emerged as the big star of the franchise during its earlier seasons, but left the program in order to pursue various acting opportunities as her star power emerged.
Ziegler’s new memoir, The Maddie Diaries: A Memoir , was less-than-flattering toward her former instructor and Dance Moms co-star, according to Radar Online .
The conflict between Ziegler and Abby Lee was a natural storyline generated during the early seasons of the hit show, with Maddie and her mother often left to fend for themselves as Abby Lee vocally criticized her and other dancers in her troupe. Now, it appears, some of that dislike has spilled over into the real world as well.
With Abby Lee Miller’s 2017 court appearance looming, many are wondering what the future may hold for her. Perhaps none more than Miller herself.
[Featured Image by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Shaping Sound]