Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
- Following her parents’ 2022 divorce, Miley Cyrus became estranged from her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.
- Since then, both Billy Ray and Miley’s mother have found new love.
- These relationships have helped Miley see a new side of her parents, and that new attitude helped as she recently reconciled with her dad.
Miley Cyrus is leaving the family drama behind her, or at least she’s trying to. While promoting her new album Something Beautiful, which released on Friday, the singer opened up about her past estrangement from her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast.
Speaking about her sometimes complex relationship with her parents, Miley said that she “took on some of [her] mom’s hurt” when Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus divorced in 2022. The end of their marriage also led to a rift between the 32-year-old “Flowers” singer and her father. Miley didn’t even thank Billy Ray in her 2024 Grammys acceptance speech, fueling more rumors of a Cyrus family feud.
But now that her mom is married to Australian actor Dominic Purcell and Billy Ray is dating British actor Elizabeth Hurley, Miley says she feels like her “adult self has caught up.” She explained: “My mom is like so in love with my stepdad Dom, who I also just completely adore. And now that my dad, I see him finding happiness outside of that too, I can love them both as individuals instead of as a kind of, you know, a parental pairing.”
“At first, it’s hard,” Miley said of seeing her parents back in the dating pool. “The little kid in you reacts before the adult in you and go, ‘Yes, that’s your dad, but that’s just another person that deserves to be in his bliss and be happy.’”
This show of public support comes about a month after Miley commented on the family feud and announced that she and her father had reconciled. “My dad and I have had our challenges over the years. Now, in my thirties, family is my priority above all else. I’m at peace knowing bridges have been built and time has done a lot of healing,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories.
While Billy Ray has yet to comment on his renewed family relationships, he has been very public with his new love. He and Hurley hard-launched their romance on Instagram in April with an Easter post, featuring Billy Ray wearing green bunny ears and kissing Elizabeth on the cheek. The couple has been posting about each other ever since. Despite her words of support, it’s still unclear whether Miley has hung out with both of them yet.
Olivia Truffaut-Wong is an editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers beauty, entertainment, and lifestyle. She loves finding and testing the best skincare products to recommend, like the best tinted sunscreens, and is always researching the best cat accessories for her fur baby. She has over 10 years of experience as an entertainment and culture writer and editor, and her work has been featured in The Cut, Refinery29, Teen Vogue, Polygon, Bustle, and more.
