Miley Cyrus Speaks Out On Rumored Estrangement From Dad Billy Ray

Miley Cyrus is opening up about the current state of her relationship with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.

Miley Cyrus recently discussed her relationship with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, for the first time in an interview with David Letterman on his Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. During the candid conversation, she addressed the ongoing rumors of tension between them, which began when people noticed that Miley was absent from Billy Ray’s wedding to his soon-to-be ex-wife, Firerose, back in October 2023.

While thinking about how her parents have helped her succeed, Miley expressed her gratitude for her dad and recognized how much he has shaped her life and career.

“Without my dad, I know — I mean, not just literally I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair, I wouldn’t exist — but I would not, who I am as a person, it wouldn’t exist. Because my dad, as a creative and as an artist in the way that his brain works, has always made me feel safer in my own mind because we’re very similar in our ideas,” she continued.

However, Miley emphasized that her mother, Tish Cyrus, played a more crucial role in her upbringing. “Honestly, my mom is my hero,” Miley stated.

She further explained her current relationship with her parents when asked if it’s “unlikely that both parents would share an equal role going through your life.”

“It’s really just not the closeness,” Miley responded. “I think it’s the capacity in which my mom was raised by a completely intact, beautiful family. Actually, my mom was adopted so my mom was chosen. Her parents couldn’t have children, so they wanted her more than anything in the world. So my mom came in to this world being wanted and being loved and being given the most beautiful life. My grandmother spoiled not only her but me completely rotten. My dad didn’t have that.”

Miley went on to explain the differences in the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer’s childhood.

“The way my dad was raised, he grew up very poor in a very small town,” she said. “His parents were divorced when he was very young. My dad had a pretty rough childhood and my childhood, really —I mean, we can go on and talk about the hard times and the struggles; you know, turning in my homework and learning my lines was tough — but I had food, I had love, I grew up in a beautiful big house. And my dad didn’t have that. So I have a lot of empathy and compassion for his childhood, which obviously developed to create the man he is now that I have a lot of love for.”

At one point, Letterman brought up the rumors, asking Miley directly, “There’s not estrangement here with your father, it’s just the way things are played?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I think, what is so beautiful is that my parents, they served their children, and I know this. My parents served us and sacrificed so much for us. Anything we dreamed of, they made possible.”

In April 2022, Miley’s parents, Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus, filed for divorce after 27 years of marriage. By the following year, both had remarried, with Tish marrying actor Dominic Purcell and Billy Ray marrying singer Firerose. However, recent reports have surfaced indicating that Billy Ray filed for divorce from his wife last month. The court documents cited irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct as reasons for the divorce filing.