Miley Cyrus Explains Message for Exes in 'Prisoner' Video: 'Fight Back and Poke a Little Fun'

Miley Cyrus says the message at the end of her music video was an opportunity to "create something that was campy and that was the perfect bookend"

Miley Cyrus is opening up about that message in her "Prisoner" music video.

The 28-year-old singer, who's fresh off the release of her album Plastic Hearts, opened up about her new music to The Project in an interview published Wednesday, touching on the "In loving memory of all my exes, eat s—" message that pops up at the end of the "Prisoner" video.

"I think life can be very painful and sometimes poking fun at it and laughing along with it — like I always feel like life is laughing at me, you know, pulling its strings," Cyrus said. "Just creating whatever chaos that it wants to, and it doesn't take it easy on us."

The artist went on to say she felt like the message "was a way that I was able to kind of fight back at that and poke a little fun at it and create something that was campy."

"And that was kind of the perfect bookend for what we made," Cyrus added of herself and Dua Lipa, who is featured on "Prisoner."

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Miley Cyrus Prisoner
"Prisoner" music video. Miley Cyrus/YouTube

"Prisoner" is a gritty, retro single off Plastic Hearts, with a sexy music video that sees Cyrus and Lipa, 25, road-tripping together. The '80s-rock-inspired video begins with Cyrus' mouth singing (not unlike the opening to The Rocky Horror Picture Show) before she gets behind the wheel of a tour bus with Lipa.

The pair is shown rocking out together and changing outfits before Cyrus pours a jar of cherries over her face — the resulting mess resembling blood, which Lipa licks off.

Cyrus' 3-minute video ends with the duo performing a show together for an audience, before the "In loving memory of all my exes, eat s—" message appears, in red-and-pink pulsating letters — complete with a barbed-wire heart surrounding some of the text.

Miley Cyrus
Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus in the "Prisoner" music video. Miley Cyrus/YouTube

While appearing virtually on a recent episode of The Howard Stern Show, Cyrus also shared information behind the LP's opening track, "WTF Do I Know," including that the part of the song is about her ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth.

"You want an apology? Not from me / I had to leave you in your own misery / So tell me, baby, am I wrong that I moved on? / And I, and I don't even miss you / Thought that it'd be you until I die / But I let go / What the f— do I know?" she sings on the track.

During her chat with Stern, 66, Cyrus noted that her "I don't even miss you" lyric from the song was about Hemsworth, 30, "in that minute," as she described.

"Sometimes you miss people more than others, and sometimes, things get easier," she explained. "Time kind of heals all, but that was at a time where I felt really strong. And then some days I don't."

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