Maddie Ziegler says mom 'apologized' to her for 'Dance Moms' trauma: 'It's so sad'

"Dance Moms" alum Maddie Ziegler is working on healing her inner child after years on the hyper-competitive reality show.

The actress and dancer, 20, revealed on a Tuesday episode of the "High Low with EmRata" podcast that her mother Melissa Ziegler-Gisoni has since apologized to her for the pressure of "Dance Moms."

"Last year, I was having a really bad panic attack and I called my mom and things were coming up from the past, and she apologized to me," Ziegler told host Emily Ratajkowski. "She was like, 'I'm so sorry I put you through that.'"

The "West Side Story" star added: "It's so sad because she would never want to hurt (my sister Mackenzie and I), but none of us knew how crazy it would get."

Ziegler revealed that during her first season on Lifetime's "Dance Moms" in 2011, she would be separated from her mom and "there were male producers saying, 'This is what you have to say.' … They would say, 'Say you're the best, say you're better than everyone else, say blah blah blah.'"

"I was perceived as a little brat in the first season," she recalled. Ziegler was 7 years old during the premiere and quit in 2016.

These days, the dancer says she has a closer relationship with her former co-stars and competitors "without the moms" being around. "It's so chill."

Ziegler added that she's been working in therapy to break habits that were "not sustainable" from being perceived as her former dance teacher Abby Lee Miller's dance protege.

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"I was such a perfectionist and I was so hard on myself, and now I'm trying to unlearn all those traits, and it's an ongoing battle," she said. "If I mess up, it's not the end of the world."

After meeting the singer and her collaborator Sia, whom Ziegler referred to as her "guardian angel," the dancer got the support to leave "Dance Moms."

"She saved me from the show and everything I was doing," Ziegler said. "(My mom) really did everything to try to break our contract and pull us out, and eventually did with the help of Sia."

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The "Music" star noted that Sia also apologizes to her "all the time" for having her work in various music videos at such a young age. Still, Ziegler appreciates their working relationship because it is what piqued her interest in acting and allowed her to distance herself from "Dance Moms."

"Acting has become the forefront of what I love right now," she said.

Ziegler has since disconnected from the show, telling Ratajkowski, "I've blocked out so much of my childhood that I actually don't know what my life was like even just before working. It's weird to find out things that I did when I was younger on TikTok. I'll see people posting things of me, and I'm like, 'I don't even remember doing that.'"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maddie Ziegler says mom 'apologized' to her for 'Dance Moms' trauma