'Dance Moms' Star Kelly Hyland Is Facing a New Battle and It Isn't Abby Lee Miller

It’s 2011: Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” is the number one song, everyone’s tuning into the Royal Wedding, and Dance Moms is taking over our free time. Featuring the controversial dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller, Dance Moms brought together several girls and their mothers as they trained to win every dance competition possible. But the drama of the moms is what drove the show.

Kelly Hyland had two daughters studying with Abby on the team — Brooke and Paige Hyland. However, Kelly invited drama because she often felt her daughters were overlooked compared to Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler. But Kelly was often the most level-headed of the moms and she never forced her daughters to do anything they didn’t want to, unlike some other dance moms. And now, Kelly is sadly in the hospital. What happened to Kelly Hyland?

In an exclusive with E! News and a post on her Instagram, Kelly shared on May 29, 2024, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. She confirmed that she had invasive carcinoma stage 1, grade 3, which is the fastest-moving form of breast cancer.

"I booked myself a mammogram," she shared. "I had just had one done eight months prior and the results came back clean. However, this new mammogram and sonogram did not, it came back showing a mass … I went from clean results to a malignant mass in eight months. I was shocked that it had grown that quickly and scared of the battle I knew I was about to face."

Even though it had progressed quickly, Kelly caught the mass quite early thanks to doing at-home self-examinations. She found a lump in her breast in late March and quickly went to the doctor, although the first flag she said was her “significant weight loss.”

The world may be familiar with Kelly’s daughters, Brooke and Paige, who have a combined following of 7 million followers on Instagram, but her son, Josh, has been just as supportive. It’s kind of crazy to look back on Dance Moms and see Brooke and Paige now as adults, respectively. Brooke just announced her engagement, and their family recently paid homage to Kelly’s mother, who died in 2019 of breast cancer.

Now, the three Hyland children are rallying behind their mother to support her. Kelly lives in Florida while her kids all live in Pittsburgh, so they did a four-way call so she could share the tough news. "I had an instant gut feeling something was off," Paige shared. "As soon as she told us the bad news, I felt like I was in shock and then quickly hit with a whirlwind of emotions. Not only was I scared, I was angry, sad, and confused as to why this would happen to someone as amazing as my mother."

Brooke added, "We watched my Nana battle cancer for years so I knew that we were at the start of a very long and challenging road. I hated that I had to watch another important person in my life go through it." But Josh is hopeful. "I feel very hopeful that it is only at stage one, I feel like she caught it quickly," he shared. "I know my mom is strong enough to get through this."

In addition, all of Kelly’s former Dance Moms friends are by her side as she goes through this tough time. She’s even continuing to host her podcast, Dear Dance Mom, with Melissa Gisoni, Holly Frazier, and Jill Vertes, as well as her podcast, Back to the Barre, with Christi Lukasiak. Kelly and Christi were #friendshipgoals on Dance Moms and as Christi stands by her bestie’s side, they continue their legacy of friendship through motherhood.

Our thoughts and best wishes are with Kelly, her friends, and her family as she embarks on this challenging journey. But based on what we’ve seen her deal with on Dance Moms, we know she can handle anything.