The former 'Dance Moms' star is opening up about her experience shooting the recent reunion special.
JoJo Siwa is reflecting on the recent Dance Moms: The Reunion special, and opening up about some behind-the-scenes drama that played out during production.
Siwa, 20, got candid about the Lifetime special during a new episode of her podcast, JoJo Siwa Now, and explained that the reunion didn't play out the way she expected when she first signed on.
"There was a few times on the reunion where the producers tried to do some shady s**t," Siwa claimed, stating that she felt the producers tried to stir up unnecessary drama between her and her fellow former stars -- Kalani Hilliker, Kendall Vertes, Chloé Lukasiak, Paige Hyland, and Brooke Hyland.
"The producers wanted me and Chloé to kind of get into it a little bit and talk about our online beef, and honestly that's not how I feel anymore," Siwa claimed, adding that they were also told to call out the Dance Moms stars who refused to be a part of the reunion -- including Nia Sioux, Maddie Ziegler and Mackenzie Ziegler.
One of the biggest issues Siwa says she had with the producers had to do with the show's former star, dance teacher Abby Lee Miller. Siwa claimed the producers tried to push her to call Miller on the phone during filming.
"Me and Kalani are the two that have a relationship with Abby. ... Paige, Brooke and Chloé don't have any, and it was not a healthy end of a relationship," Siwa said, referring to the infamous altercation their parents got into with Miller that resulted in them leaving the show. "And the producers kept wanting me to call Abby."
"And I was like, 'Absolutely not.' That is where I put my foot down," Siwa said. "I was like, 'I'm not only putting myself in an awkward position of calling in this environment, that no one invited her to, but also I'm putting Abby in a weird situation where she is talking to people who she doesn't necessarily know how to talk to them."
She also worried about how it would make her co-stars feel, explaining, "There is real trauma there."
"I have a good relationship with Abby. I have chosen to see that Abby only ever wanted what was best for me and only ever was tough on me because she wanted what was best for me," Siwa said. "So for me, I wanted to protect my relationship with Abby, and I wanted to protect my relationship with Brooke, Paige and Chloé."
Ultimately, however, Siwa said she felt the reunion special "was so healing for all of us." However, that doesn't mean she felt it was the best way to do a Dance Moms reunion in the first place.
"I thought there was, honestly... a better way to do it. And I think we could still do this, depending on if people are down or not," Siwa said.
As for her pitch? "Stick all of us in a house for a month," Siwa suggested. "In the two days that we were together, there was drama... little shady bits. So just imagine! I think it would be so fun."
In December, ET spoke with Siwa at the Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic special and she spilled the tea on the highly anticipated reunion, which comes five years after the show ended following a nine-season run.
"We got squads, it's good! There's a lot," she said at the time.
That interview came after a photo of the group while filming made its way onto social media and amped up fans for the tell-all project. Under the photo, dozens of commenters asked about the missing members, prompting Siwa to respond in the comments,
"Grateful for this day! For everyone wondering about the few people missing, Everyone was invited today but only some wanted to be here," she wrote in December.
Also in attendance for the special were moms Christi Lukasiak (via FaceTime), Jill Vertes and Jessalyn Siwa. Check out the video below to hear more about Dance Moms: The Reunion.
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