Abby Lee Miller has congratulated JoJo Siwa for coming out. She expressed her joy to Entertainment Tonight.
"I'm very proud, I'm very proud," Abby said of JoJo's Instagram statement on February 8 where she shared the news that she had a girlfriend.
Abby was asked if she thought it was hard for the 17-year-old to hide her sexuality in the public eye. In response, Abby Lee said she didn't think that JoJo hid anything.
She added of her former student, "I think maybe she just didn't know."
"I will be honest, mainly guys that danced for me throughout the years. Some have come to me and said, 'You know, without you, I would've committed suicide,'" she told Entertainment Tonight.
"To hear that as a teacher, it is shocking and also very loving and kind and that I know that I did that for that child … And what you do in your private life is your business. But JoJo didn't really have a private life.," she said of one of her star students.
JoJo rose to fame along with several other famous graduates from the series. These included Maddie and Mackenzie Zeigler, Kalani Hilliker, Kendall Vertes, and Nia Sioux.
Abby Lee is still wheelchair-bound. She has been so for nearly three years after emergency surgery on her spine detected cancer. She is now free of the disease, but her recovery has been slow.
She continues to complete physical therapy and still has trouble walking. Abby Lee told ET that she can take 150 steps before she has to rest. She admitted she doesn't trust her legs because she cannot feel the floor. She continues to make slow and steady progress as seen in an Instagram post here.
In spite of all she has been through, Abby Lee is thankful she still has the friendship of the Siwa family.
She told Entertainment Tonight that JoJo's family has always been there for her throughout all of her health issues. Abby Lee said she had been to the entertainer's home many times.
Abby Lee said the clan was always there to talk to and call. She said that JoJo calls and texts her whenever something new happens in her life. She admitted that it felt good to continue to be thought of. It made her feel like she was not forgotten.
