Before she was a contestant on season 18 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Mia Starr (which is the stage name of Mikey Pesante) actually took a break from drag to chase her dream of working as a professional dancer. Mia had that dream realized when she danced for industry giants like Rihanna, Britney Spears, and Camila Cabello, and was even one of Jennifer Lopez’s dancers for her Super Bowl halftime show in 2020.

However, Mia claims that her experience working with J.Lo “felt like hell.” In a YouTube video with fellow drag performer Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Mia opened up about what it really felt like to be part of the huge cultural moment…and alleged that the “Waiting for Tonight” singer body shamed her early on in the rehearsal process.

“I was doing the Super Bowl with J.Lo, the worst experience that I’ve ever had. It was like a hazing,” she shared, adding that she had dropped out of casting that season of The Voice to perform in the halftime show with Jennifer.

“I get there the second day of rehearsal, so she looks at me. She tells me to take off my shirt. I was like, bitch, just me?” she continued, later explaining to Entertainment Weeklythat the singer looked “disgusted” at Mia’s body.

“I take off my shirt…she makes this face, followed by, ‘Guys, I need you to elevate yourselves. I need you to go to the gym and take care of yourself,’” Mia added. “I’m like, bitch, we got three months [until the Super Bowl]. I’m gonna snatch it back. Just give me a second.”

During her chat with EW, Mia dove deeper into the situation. “It just felt like an icky feeling,” she admitted to the outlet. “To a normal person, I wasn’t huge.” She alleged that Jennifer “made it very clear that she was not pleased with my image, the way she gave that look of disgust. I was like, oh, this is embarrassing.”

The RuPaul’s Drag Race alum went on to reveal that J.Lo’s dancers “weren’t aware” she was filming her Netflix documentary, Halftime, during the rehearsal process until the “last minute,” when they were allegedly asked to sign releases to appear in the doc without pay.

“I was like, no, you didn’t put me through all of that to not pay me. I didn’t sign the paper. There were a few of us that didn’t sign. They somehow found a loophole to still put me in it,” Mia told EW, claiming that she later received “a $20 check” as compensation.

“It was so insulting,” she added. “I told my agent, ‘You know what, actually, you can just please send this back, they clearly need it more than I do.’ I sent it back, because it’s super insulting. I just had to laugh at that point, I was like, this is unreal.”

The performer was then called back to work on a separate, one-off project with J.Lo and declined based on her previous experience.

“I would be in front of her and be like, damn, this bitch is gorgeous. But would I work with her again? No,” Mia told Mistress Isabelle Brooks. “I was asked to come back for another gig, and I said no. The worst experience that I’ve ever had. And that was the biggest bucket list check mark to have as a dancer.”

Jennifer has yet to weigh in on the allegations.