The trouble with Billy Ray Cyrus: Divorce, Trump and rivalry with daughter Miley
Soon after Billy Ray Cyrus took the stage at President Trump’s inaugural Liberty Ball in Washington DC on Monday, it quickly became apparent that something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t just the sound system, which cut out so that the 63-year-old country star couldn’t hear his guitar, or the rattle in his voice as he croaked: “How good was it to see our President back in command?” The trouble seemed to run deeper, as Cyrus’s family members have since spoken out about it.
In an emotional open letter, adopted son Trace Cyrus wrote to his father: “Since my earliest memories all I can remember is being obsessed with you and thinking you were the coolest person ever. I wanted to be just like you. The day you adopted me was the happiest day of my life. Sadly the man that I wanted so desperately to be just like I barely recognise now. It seems this world has beaten you down and it’s become obvious to everyone but you.”
Then it was the turn of Cyrus’s most recent ex-wife Firerose Cyrus, who told Page Six. “What’s being seen in public now reflects much of what I experienced in private during our relationship. It’s very sad to see those same struggles continue for him, but I’m glad the truth is coming to light — for his potential good because healing is only possible when you confront the truth and accept there’s a problem.”
Cyrus, who was born and raised in Kentucky, has been a household name for 33 years. His 1992 debut single “Achy Breaky Heart” catapulted him to international stardom, going platinum in the United States, riding high up the charts in the UK off the back of his appearance on Top of the Pops and becoming the biggest-selling track of the year in Australia. The song became such a phenomenon that it was credited with aiding the spread of line dancing around the world. Cyrus released a string of successful country albums throughout the 1990s, before briefly dabbling in Christian rock in 2003 on his albums Time Flies and The Other Side.
In 2006, the world was introduced to his daughter Miley Cyrus when she began playing the lead role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, cast as a teenage girl living a double life as a famous pop singer. Cyrus himself appeared alongside Miley in the show as her father, retired country singer Robby Ray Stewart. Cyrus’s close relationship with his daughter on the show seemed to reflect his real-life status as a dedicated family man.
Cyrus’s relationship with Miley’s mother, Tish Finley, had got off to a complicated start. In 1992, he fathered children with two different women, Miley with Finley and son Christopher with waitress Kristin Luckey. He pledged to help support Christopher, who was raised by his mother in South Carolina, and married Finley a year later when she was pregnant with their second child, son Braison. They later had another daughter, Noah, in 2000, and Cyrus also adopted her two children from a previous relationship, Brandi and Trace.
As Hannah Montana became a global success, with Tish stepping into the role of Miley’s manager, cracks started to appear in the marriage. Cyrus filed for divorce from his wife in 2010, but dropped proceedings the following year. Then in 2013, she began divorce proceedings which she dropped after they began therapy. They finally divorced in 2022, with court documents revealing they’d been separated for two years by that point.
Cyrus didn’t stay single for long, becoming engaged to Australian singer Firerose later in 2022 and marrying her in 2023. Firerose, 34 at the time, is 27 years his junior, and the marriage lasted just eight months before they divorced in 2024. The split was a messy one, with Cyrus filing for a temporary restraining order and claiming she had made $96,986 worth of unauthorized charges on his accounts.
The fallout from the split grew even more acrimonious when audio was leaked that captured Cyrus belittling Firerose, calling her a “selfish b****” and an “idiot”, while on another tape he called ex-wife Tish a “liar… a w****… and a cheat”, adding “everyone knows devil’s a skank” in apparent reference to either Tish or daughter Miley.
Tabloid reports have suggested that Cyrus was envious of his daughter’s success going from Hannah Montana into her own stellar pop career, and that they haven’t been on speaking terms since those damaging recordings were made public. Recent reports, however, have sought to play down any family division. “They got through the drama of 2024, and it’s a new year,” an insider told People. “Miley and Noah and Braison and Tish, they don’t want to be this Cyrus family feud. This is not enjoyable for them.”
For his part, Cyrus has defended his performance at the Liberty Ball, claiming “You just had to be there.” He is looking to the future, and has since announced the release of a new album to be produced by his son Braison.
“This is art imitating life, imitating art,” Cyrus said in a statement. “It starts and ends with art. Braison is very talented and ’25 is his year. I’m glad to be a part of it. This record is gonna be special. I’m gearing up for what will be the journey of a lifetime.”
