Maddie Ziegler 2024: New Book, Relationship, Abby Feud

Few reality TV kids have managed what Maddie Ziegler has: leaving the show that made her famous and building a career that no longer needs it. She was the breakout star of Dance Moms, and her 2014 turn in Sia’s “Chandelier” video made her a global name by the time she was 12 (Teen Vogue (youth culture magazine)). A decade later, the work has changed — films, books, and a public image she controls on her own terms.

Breakout Role: Sia’s “Chandelier” (2014) ·
Age: 22 (born Sept. 30, 2002) ·
Instagram Following: 15.6M ·
Books Published: 3 (The Maddie Diaries, The Audition, The New Order) ·
Dance Moms: 6 seasons (2011–2016)

Seven facts, one pattern: Ziegler’s résumé now runs from reality TV to film to books, even though most searches still start with a music video.

The pattern is clear: every move she makes widens the gap between the reality-TV kid and the artist she became.

What has happened to Maddie Ziegler?

The short version is that Ziegler outgrew the competition floor and kept going. After six seasons on Dance Moms, she left in 2016, and the projects since have followed a deliberate path away from reality TV.

Maddie Ziegler’s Career in 2024: Acting, Books, and Dance

• Appeared in the 2024 film My Old Ass, a sign of her Hollywood pivot (AOL (news outlet))
• Continues to dance selectively while acting and writing take priority
• Built a post-show résumé that now includes film, publishing, and fashion

The acting push is the most visible change. My Old Ass places her in a proper movie cast, with festival press and premiere appearances that look nothing like her reality-TV years. Coverage in 2024 described the shift as Ziegler finally speaking for herself as an artist — choosing her own roles, doing her own press, and leaving the choreographer’s vision behind (Teen Vogue (youth culture magazine)).

Maddie Ziegler Books: The Maddie Diaries and The Audition Series

• Published a New York Times best-selling memoir, The Maddie Diaries, in 2017
• Followed it with The Audition (2017), her debut fiction novel

Both titles arrived the year after she left the show, and they gave Ziegler an identity that didn’t depend on a stage or a score sheet. People’s career roundup lists the memoir among her major credits, alongside a role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and modeling campaigns for Givenchy, Kate Spade, and Fendi (People (celebrity news)).

The Fallout: Where to Watch Maddie Ziegler’s Acting Debut

• Starred as Megan in the HBO Max drama The Fallout (2022)

The Fallout, a drama about students coping after a school shooting, is the title most fans cite as her real acting debut, and it’s streaming on Max (People (celebrity news)).

The implication: Ziegler keeps building exits. Every new medium — film, books, fashion — gives her another answer to the question of what she is now, and each answer makes the Dance Moms years a smaller part of the story.

Is Maddie Ziegler in a relationship?

Ziegler’s love life is currently a quiet corner of her public life. The most recent documented relationship, with Australian musician Eddie Benjamin, ended in February 2023, according to People (celebrity news).

Who is Maddie Ziegler dating?

• Current status: not publicly linked to anyone since the 2023 split with Benjamin
• Keeps her private life out of red-carpet interviews and social media

Since the split, Ziegler has been photographed mainly at premieres and fashion events, usually alone or with her sister. That matches the more guarded public image she has described in a 2024 cover interview (Polyester Zine (independent fashion magazine)).

Did Maddie Ziegler ever have a baby?

• No — Ziegler has no children
• The rumor appears to stem from a different Dance Moms cast member’s pregnancy during the show’s run

The question follows her because she was the show’s most visible dancer, and a castmate’s pregnancy storyline later got attached to her name in fan threads. The record is clear: she has never been pregnant, and her 2024 workload — film promotion, press, and brand work — shows no sign of a pause.

What this means: Ziegler has decided that the less the public knows about her private life, the less of it gets misread. The trade-off is that rumors fill the silence — and she’s clearly fine with that.

Why does Maddie Ziegler not speak to Abby?

Ziegler answered this directly in 2022: she had not spoken to Abby Lee Miller since leaving the show, and she was at peace with that (ET Online (entertainment news)).

When did Abby stop liking Maddie?

• Ziegler left the show in 2016 after six seasons
• Miller later criticized Ziegler’s comments that Dance Moms was a toxic environment (E! Online (entertainment news))

The public break happened after the Ziegler family exited and the show kept filming without them. Miller’s tone shifted from praise to grievance once Ziegler described parts of the Dance Moms environment as toxic, and Miller has kept pushing back on that framing in interviews.

Who was Abby’s favorite after Maddie left?

• Miller’s attention shifted to later-season dancers after the Ziegler exit
• Fan debates usually land on Kalani Hilliker as the heir to the favorite spot

The favorite slot on Dance Moms was always a production device as much as a real relationship. In the final seasons, the show built its storylines around newer dancers, and Kalani Hilliker became the name most often mentioned as the next in line. When the cast reunited in May 2024, that history was still part of the conversation — even with Ziegler absent from the table.

The pattern: Miller’s public comments about Ziegler follow a consistent arc — affection turns to grievance whenever the student’s own account of the show wins the argument. The feud endures because both sides keep getting asked about it.

Is Maddie Ziegler still friends with anyone from Dance Moms?

Ziegler has never publicly cut ties with the whole cast, but her distance from the group became visible in May 2024, when a Dance Moms reunion special aired without her (Yahoo Entertainment (news portal)).

Who is the most liked person on Dance Moms?

• Chloe Lukasiak is regularly named the fan favorite in online discussions
• At the reunion, Chloe repeated claims that Abby manipulated competition scores to benefit Maddie (New York Post (news outlet))

Chloe’s status as the most-liked dancer has held for a decade. She was Maddie’s main rival in the early seasons, and the reunion gave her a platform to restate her version of events — that Miller manipulated competition scores to benefit Maddie. The audience’s sympathy has largely stayed with Chloe, in part because her on-screen defeats so often looked produced.

Who is the least popular dance mom?

• Fan rankings routinely put Abby Lee Miller, and at times Melissa Gisoni, at the bottom
• Kelly Hyland told the reunion she regretted her final fight with Miller and its impact on her family (New York Post (news outlet))

The least-liked spot in the fandom changes with every rewatch, but the original sin, for many viewers, was the obvious favoritism Maddie received on screen — and her mother Melissa had to carry that anger too. The reunion made the old alliances visible again: dancers who had stayed close versus those who had moved on.

Why this matters: the friend question is really a loyalty question. Ziegler’s silence at the reunion reads to some fans as choosing her future over her past — and to others as simple self-preservation.

Has Mackenzie ever beaten Maddie?

Yes — and it happened on camera. The Ziegler sisters competed against each other regularly on Dance Moms, and while Maddie was the show’s designated star, Mackenzie took her share of wins, according to a Yahoo Entertainment cast retrospective (Yahoo Entertainment (news portal)).

Maddie vs. Mackenzie Ziegler: Dance Competition History

• Mackenzie occasionally placed higher than Maddie in specific solos and duets
• Maddie and Mackenzie are biological sisters who competed on the same team

Those placements were rare enough that they became the show’s most replayed underdog moments. The editing always framed Maddie as the favorite, which made a Mackenzie win feel like an upset — and the “who won” question has lived on in fan forums ever since.

Mackenzie Ziegler’s Solo Career and Achievements

• Mackenzie built a separate career as a singer and actress after Dance Moms
• Her music and acting work have grown a following that overlaps with, but doesn’t depend on, her sister’s brand

The sisters never actually had to compete after the show ended. Mackenzie has her own fanbase and her own projects, and the public moments between the two suggest the rivalry was mostly a production choice. The score sheets stopped mattering the moment the cameras left.

The implication: the sibling rivalry made good television, and both sisters quietly moved past it. Fans who still compare them are looking at a highlight reel, not a current scoreboard.

Maddie Ziegler’s Career Timeline

Five dates, one pattern: each milestone moved Ziegler further from the competition floor.

• 2011–2016: Starred in Dance Moms across six seasons (New York Post (news outlet))
• 2014: Danced in Sia’s “Chandelier”
• 2022: Starred in HBO Max’s The Fallout
• 2024: Appeared in the film My Old Ass (AOL (news outlet))
• 2024: Skipped the Dance Moms reunion special

The takeaway from the timeline: Ziegler has never cycled back to a reunion, a spin-off, or a nostalgia tour. Each new credit widens the distance between her current career and her reality-TV origin.

Confirmed vs. unclear: where the record stands

Most of the questions fans search for now have solid answers. This is the confirmed-versus-unclear split in plain terms.

What this means for fans: the confirmed list is short because Ziegler shares little, and the unclear list is long because the show’s fandom reads silence as a story. The verified facts — no contact with Abby, no children, no current public relationship — are the load-bearing ones.

Quotes: the key voices

“I have not talked to Abby since I left the show. I’m at peace with it.”

— Maddie Ziegler, to Cosmopolitan in 2022, as reported by ET Online (entertainment news)

Miller has publicly criticized Ziegler’s comments that Dance Moms created a toxic environment for the dancers, pushing back on the “toxic” label in interviews years after the show ended.

— Abby Lee Miller, in comments reported by E! Online (entertainment news)

Mackenzie has described her bond with Maddie as separate from their on-screen rivalry, and the two sisters remain each other’s biggest supporters professionally.

— Mackenzie Ziegler, on her relationship with her sister, as covered by Yahoo Entertainment (news portal)

The common thread: three voices, three different versions of the same story — and none of them is likely to change the others’ minds.

Where Maddie Ziegler goes from here

Ziegler has answered the only question that matters: she is no longer the girl on the pyramid waiting for a solo. She’s the one choosing the script, the book deal, and the press tour. The Dance Moms chapter will keep resurfacing — every reunion, every Abby Lee Miller interview, every fan thread — but each new project makes it smaller. For Ziegler, the path in 2024 is clear: keep releasing work that moves her forward, or let the reunion circuit pull her back into a role she already outgrew. Every sign says she knows which one she picked.

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