Miley Cyrus has opened up about being caught in the middle of the collapse of the relationship and marriage of her parents, Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish who divorced in 2023 after 30 years together
Miley Cyrus has explained why she changed her mind over the difficult relationship her parents Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus endured. The 32-year-old singer and actress has said that she can appreciate the lives and actions of her parents differently now that she is an adult.
Miley – who divorced her husband, Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, 35, in 2020 after two years of marriage – has claimed she took on some of the pain her mother felt while Tish and Billy Ray struggled in their marriage. Achy Breaky Heart singer Billy Ray and manager Tish tied-the-knot in 1993.
The marriage ended in 2023, however, and Miley thinks the music industry may have contributed to the collapse of the romance. It has been documented that the end of the marriage caused a rift within the family, with claims that Miley grew distant from her father.
However, the Flowers singer has now reconnected with her dad after years of estrangement, and feels she can look at his past actions through new eyes. In a new interview, the star opened up about her changing thoughts.
She told the New York Times: “As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents – because my mom really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard.”
Miley went on to explain how her empathy for her mother led her to “take on” some of her emotions. She said: “[I] took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain.”
The Hannah Montana star went on to explain she has a strong bond with her mum’s new husband, the actor Dominic Purcell, and also said she is glad to see her father moving on, too. Billy Ray made headlines in April when it was revealed he had embarked on a romance with Elizabeth Hurley.
Miley also explained that she isn’t fazed by the fact that her family drama can lead to headlines. She said: “The thing I like about the new way that the world works is that everything is so fast. In the ’90s, when something happened in a tabloid, remember how it would happen for a year? Now it’s just gone.”
She explained she has “gotten so used to it that I’m like, ‘If this is the symptom — that sometimes we deal with these embarrassing or difficult public opinions — then that’s something I’m willing to take to have the life that we have.'”
Billy Ray and Tish divorced after 30 years in 2023 and went on to find new love, with Tish marrying Dominic that same year. While Billy Ray is said to be happy with British acting icon Elizabeth, he did endure a difficult relationship in the intervening years.
He was married to Australian singer Johanna Rose Hodges, who performs under the name Firerose. The pair tied the knot in October 2023 after a year of dating, and had also reportedly known each other for 10 years.
Firerose had worked on the set of Hannah Montana, with Billy Ray meeting her through the fact that his daughter was the star of the show. But the marriage collapsed last year, and they filed for divorce in May 2024. The divorce was finalised in August last year.
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