The Cyrus family rift is ever deepening, but at least Miley Cyrus is ready to address the elephant in the room (the elephant being her father, Billy Ray, divorcing her mother, Tish, for the third time in 2022). In an interview with David Letterman on his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, reports People, the former Disney star clarified the current nature of her relationship with her country-music dad. Last year, when Billy Ray married some lady named Firerose, Miley was nowhere to be found at the nuptials (though in hindsight, that move was well-calculated; Billy Ray filed for divorce last month). And in February, upon receiving Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards, the “Flowers” singer neglected to thank her father in her acceptance speech. But as of this interview, things appear to be somewhat on the mend.
In the episode, Letterman asks Miley directly, “There’s not estrangement here with your father — it’s just the way things are played?” “Yeah,” Miley responds. “I think what is so beautiful is that my parents … they served their children. My parents served us and sacrificed so much for us. Anything we dreamed of, they made possible.”
Okay, so maybe that’s a roundabout non-answer, but Miley certainly didn’t take the bait to bash Billy Ray — at least not directly. Later in the interview, Letterman asks if her dad is her hero, to which she quickly answers, “Honestly, my mom is my hero.”
“I’m grateful for being able to watch [Billy Ray] ahead of me. He’s almost given me this map, and there’s a map of what to do and what not to do, and he’s guided me on both,” she continued before adding, “I also inherited the narcissism from my father.” Someone get a pulse check on Billy Ray’s achy-breaky heart!
Zingers aside, while Miley makes clear in this interview that she favors her mother as a role model, she also extends her father plenty of grace after a tabloid-heavy few years of family feuding (rumored mother-daughter husband stealing and all). If I were Billy Ray, I’d take that as a win for now.
