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Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller has spent decades coaching young people to become elite-level dancers. The tough-as-nails dance instructor has even said that she feels like a mother to her students. But despite spending her entire career working with kids, Miller has never married or started a family of her own. In past interviews, she’s explained why she’s stayed single all these years.

She says her standards are too high

Abby Lee Miller
Abby Lee Miller attends JoJo Siwa’s Sweet 16 Birthday celebration at W Hollywood on April 09, 2019 in Hollywood, California. | Amy Sussman/Getty Images

In 2017, Miller sat down for a frank talk with Entertainment Tonight. During the interview, she revealed why she thinks she’s never settled down and gotten married.

“My problem is my standards are too high,” she said when explaining why it’s been hard for her to find a partner. “I have really high standards and in my mind, I’m young — I’m like 22, 23, 24… that’s like the age.”

But she hasn’t given up on love

While Miller hasn’t found “the one,” she told ET she hadn’t given up on finding love, and that she’d love to have someone pamper her after a long day at work.

“You know, I make decisions all day, so it’s nice for a woman like me to go to dinner and have the man take the menu and say, ‘Let me order,'” she said. “Other women would be offended by that but I’m like, ‘Good. Because I can’t make one more decision today.’ I want someone to rub my feet without being asked.”

Miller staged a fake engagement for her dying mom

While Miller has been single for a long time, there were rumors in 2014 that she was engaged to a communications specialist named Michael Padula. But soon the truth came out. Miller confessed that the engagement was a sham and that she’d pretended to be getting married in order to provide some comfort to her dying mother.

“Just let me explain,” she said on The Juice after some began to question the relationship with Padula, who is gay. “My mother was very ill, and she just passed away … I just think it was a comfort thing for her to know there was somebody.”

In 2017, some episodes of Dance Moms hinted that Miller was involved with a man named Jordan “Jordy” Rodriguez. However, Rodriguez later said that though he was friends with Miller, they weren’t romantically involved.

She doesn’t regret not having kids

Miller has spent her entire adult life training young dancers. But despite working with kids on a daily basis, she said she had no regrets about not having children of her own.

“Well, that time has come and gone,” she said when answering a question from ET about whether she wanted to start a family. “Thank you for thinking I’m so young. But I feel like I’ve raised so many children.”

Read more: Why Is Abby Lee Miller in a Wheelchair? The ‘Dance Moms’ Star Plans to Walk Again

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