Miley Cyrus thinks that Billy Ray Cyrus‘ new romance with Elizabeth Hurley is something beautiful.
In an interview with The New York Times published Saturday (May 31), the pop star was candid about her thoughts regarding her father’s relationship with the English actress, which she compared to mom Tish Cyrus finding love again with actor Dominic Purcell. “As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents,” Miley began.
“My mom’s really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard,” she continued. “And so I think I took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own, because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain. But now that my mom is so in love with my stepdad, who I completely adore, and now that my dad, I see him finding happiness, too — I can love them both as individuals instead of as a parental pairing.”
“I’m being an adult about it,” she added. “At first it’s hard, because the little kid in you reacts before the adult in you can go, ‘Yes, that’s your dad, but that’s just another person that deserves to be in his bliss and to be happy.’ My child self has caught up.”
The “Flowers” singer’s parents were married for nearly 30 years before divorcing in 2022, after which Tish — who has worked for years as Miley’s manager — married Purcell in August 2023. Two months later, Billy Ray would marry singer-songwriter Firerose, though the “Achy Breaky Heart” crooner would file for divorce after seven months of marriage in 2024.
Billy Ray has since started dating Hurley, with the couple making their relationship Instagram official on Easter. “She’s so impressively brilliant,” he said of his Christmas in Paradise costar on Apple Music’s The Ty Bentli Show in April. “She reminds me a lot of Dolly Parton. She’s a very smart businesswoman. If you can laugh together, you can make it through everything.”
Throughout the changes in Tish and Billy Ray’s love lives, rumors that Miley was estranged from her dad continuously circulated. In May, however, the Grammy winner put those to bed with a statement on Instagram Stories, writing, “My dad and I have had our challenges over the years … I’m at peace knowing bridges have been built and time has done a lot of healing.”
While speaking to NYT, Miley doubled down. “No,” she replied when asked whether she was “still estranged” from Billy Ray. “I think timing is everything.”
As for her mom, the Hannah Montana alum recently paid tribute to Tish on “End of the World,” one of the singles from new album Something Beautiful, which dropped May 30. According to Miley, she wrote the track when her mom left her for a week to vacation in Italy, admitting, “I’m too old to feel that way, but that’s how I felt.”
“My mom called me and said: ‘I don’t know why, but I want to cry today,’” Miley added to NYT. “‘I’m looking out my window, and there’s nothing out there for me, because you’re back home.’”
