Dance Moms’ Maddie Ziegler and Eddie Benjamin have split after nearly three years of dating

Maddie Ziegler, best known for starring on Lifetime’s reality show Dance Moms from 2011 to 2016, and Eddie Benjamin have split after almost three years of dating.

After their whirlwind romance, which blossomed months before the COVID-19 pandemic, the 20-year-old musical actress and musician have parted ways.

The couple, who often showcased their relationship on TikTok, sparked dating rumors for the first time after they were seen holding hands in December 2019.

However, they waited until March 2020 to confirm their relationship status, and gradually began to feel more comfortable talking about each other in public.

The news of their friendly separation was confirmed by People Friday morning.

Last year, the dancer recalled how they went from ‘best friends’ to a couple after they both broke up with their last couples.

As they were leaving their past relationships behind one night, she said the singer told her, “You and I love each other so much it gets confusing.”

After agreeing with him, she told him Cosmopolitan that she covered her face “with a pillow for 20 minutes” and couldn’t look at him.

“This is so embarrassing because we literally admit that we love each other!” But we are children. Me and Eddie are still kids. We are working it out and we are just letting it happen,” she mused.

At the time, she also confessed that their nicknames for each other were “too random and embarrassing” for her to say out loud.

Also, the star said they loved goofing off together and her younger sister Mackenzie, 18, told her: “You guys have this language that no one else has and you’re so weird and say the weirdest things.”

During the interview, Ziegler praised her then-boyfriend for being “so good” at getting her out of “scary moments” when she’s “bored” or feeling anxious or having a “little panic attack.”

We fight all the time, not aggressively. But we love the UFC, we literally love the UFC so much. We have gone to see Conor McGregor fight many times in person,” the beauty gushed. He is so out of my element, he is so violent. I don’t know why I like it. Or we will play soccer.

As a child, Ziegler said she “never thought about wanting a boyfriend” because she was focused on work.

“I was never boy crazy,” she recalled. “Obviously, I loved Zac Efron when he was 8 and Justin Bieber when he was 8, but I never thought about real-life boys.”

After her parents’ turbulent divorce, she said it was “great” to see her mother and stepfather’s “healthy relationship” as an example of love.

Like her mother, she says she’s a “caretaker” and that she “stepped in as Kenzie’s other mom” after the end of her parents’ marriage.

“I loved taking care of her, and I apply that to all my friends,” she said.