Maddie Ziegler was 'set up for failure'

Maddie Ziegler says she was “set up for failure” on ‘Dance Moms’.

The 19-year-old dancer-and-actress first became well-known after starring in the Lifetime reality show from the age of eight in 2011 until 2016, and she has recalled how the programme’s producer forced her to act like a “brat” who wins everything.

Speaking to the latest issue of America’s Cosmopolitan magazine, she spilled: “People thought I was a brat because in all my interviews I would say, ‘I’m the best. I know I’m going to win.’ But that’s because the producer was telling me to say that.

“I don’t think I’m better than everyone else. I was just doing whatever they told me to do because I thought that’s what you did.

“They set you up for failure.”

Maddie – who went on to star in mu videos for Sia, as well as films and further television shows – admits she has “dissociated so much” from her time on the show and life has been less stressful since those intense days.

She went on: “I had more stress at the age than I did once I left.

“I have dissociated so much from that time.

“I’ll see fans post scenes from ‘Dance Moms’ and I’m like, ‘I literally don’t remember that happening.'”

And while there was a lot of difficult things to deal with, she did enjoy her stint on the programme about a dance troupe and their doting mothers who are rivals of each other on behalf of their daughters.

She added: “It’s weird because they were really amazing times, but there were also a lot of things that were really, really not great for us kids.”

Maddie also insists she doesn’t consider herself “famous” and prefers to use the term “well-known”, because she fears everyone will think she sees herself as “all that”.