Miley Cyrus’ won’t have to buy herself flowers any longer – after her romance with Maxx Morando has blossomed into an engagement.
The “Wrecking Ball” singer – an original wild child of popular culture in the early 2010s – proudly displayed her chunky diamond on the red carpet for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” premiere Monday in Los Angeles, where she was accompanied by her new fiancé.
Although they have been dating for four years, rock drummer Morando – who, at 27, is six years younger than Cyrus – has been a very under-the-radar presence in Hollywood.
However, as her partying, twerking and marijuana smoking are all well behind her and she has reinvented herself, Morando is said to be a steadying presence for Cyrus.
“He’s very low key – he’s always been like that. He’s fun and silly – just a sweetheart,” a source close to Morando told Page Six of their relationship.
In fact, “he was still living at his parents house when they started dating,” the source added, also noting fresh-faced 80s-style rocker Morando has only had two serious girlfriends before Miley.
Raised in Los Angeles, he is the son of reality TV producer Dan Morando, known for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” and “The Bachelor,” and mother Amy Morando, who works as a production coordinator, according to Linkedin.
Like Miley – who grew up in the spotlight and has been a superstar since acting and singing in “Hannah Montana” from the age of 13 – Morando has always been focused on a music career.
He graduated from the real-life School of Rock – a facility in Los Angeles which offers classes in songwriting, performance, recording techniques and “Rock 101” – as a teenager and has followed that career path since, forgoing a college education. “He’s always been passionate about music,” a family member told Page Six.
Before growing his current Russell Brand-esque haircut, Morando cut his teeth on the Los Angeles punk rock music scene as a drummer in the rock band The Regrettes, in which he played from 2015 to 2018.
Morando went on to start his current band, Liily, in 2016. He and Cyrus frequently bond over music, and he is credited producer on two of her tracks: “Handstand” and “Violet Chemistry.”
Morando proposedduring a recent trip to Japan, shocking Miley – which she admits isn’t an easy feat.
“I am not easy to surprise, because I love to control every situation. And I had completely surrendered,” Cyrus gushed in an interview Tuesday with ABC News.
The star also called Morando a “great partner,” crediting him for a great deal of her own personal growth in the last few years.
“It’s very obvious the drastic amount of growth that I’ve had in those four years … and a lot of that is because I have a great partner,” Cyrus confessed.
“You just want to dream the biggest you can, and you want to have someone by your side that always tells you, ‘You can do it,’ ” Cyrus told ABC News Tuesday.
Indeed, sources say Morando provides the yin to his partner’s yang, and is the more laid back one in the relationship.
“It makes sense. A lot of times women like Miley, who are really powerful and have a big personality — a lot of times they want someone who grounds them and is more calm.
“Maxx is super different than any guy she’s dated,” the source close to the drummer said, noting that Morando is the opposite of Cyrus’ ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth.
Movie star Hemsworth and Cyrus met on 2009 on the set of “The Last Song” and married in December 2018 after a sometimes rocky relationship, just one month after their house in Malibu had burned down in a wildfire.
Just eight months later, in August 2019, the marriage crashed and burned, reportedly because Hemsworth wanted a more traditional lifestyle than his wife. By her own admission, Cyrus was a very different person at that time.
Although she quit smoking marijuana in 2017, she was still drinking alcohol and partying. After the split she immediately embarked on a whirlwind six-week relationship with “The Hills: New Beginnings” star Kaitlynn Carter, who was herself also going through a breakup from reality TV star Brody Jenner.
“This past July, I went on vacation with a female friend; the next thing I knew, I was in love with her,” Carter later wrote.
After they broke up, Cyrus moved on with Australian singer Cody Simpson, who she dated for another year, a period where she also got sober.
“I’ve learned this about myself over the years,” she said in an interview on Apple Music 1 earlier this summer, “The sobriety is like, that’s like my God. I need it, I live for it. I mean that it’s changed my entire life.”
She also opened up about her experience with Reinke’s edema, a vocal cord disorder that’s contributed to her sound and overall raspy range.
The “Wrecking Ball” singer’s previous hard partying lifestyle, she admitted, didn’t help the vocal strain.
“Being 21 and staying up and drinking and smoking and partying after every show does not help,” Cyrus told Lowe, explaining: “I have this very large polyp on my vocal cord, which has given me a lot of the tone and the texture that has made me who I am.”
There was also strife in her family life too. In 2022 Cyrus’ parents finally split after 30 years together. Her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, and mother Tish had both previously filed for divorce from each other, but called it off.
In the split, Miley — who has two siblings and three half-siblings — sided with her mother, and didn’t speak to her father again until this year, when they finally patched things up.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents … I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard. 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,” she told the New York Times in May.
Tish has remarried, while Billy ray is now dating actress Elizabeth Hurley, 60.
Cyrus’ split with Hemsworth still loomed large over her life until she appears to have finally exorcized him with her mega hit “Flowers” in August 2023. The breakup track and music video came out on Hemsworth’s birthday.
Fans speculated that the mansion in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles Cyrus filmed the music video was previously used by Hemsworth to cheat on the “Party In The USA” songstress, though the claim was never verified.
Cyrus has previously denied rumors the “Hunger Games” star cheated, tweeting in 2019: “I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating.”
The breakup bop also revitalized her career. Cyrus earned her two Grammy awards in 2024 when she took home Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Flowers.”
However, insiders flagged how Cyrus has now got engaged —with a ring worth up to $450,000, according to experts — just two months after Hemsworth popped the question to his 29-year-old model girlfriend, Gabriela Brooks.
However, sources say Morando — who first met Cyrus in 2021 on a blind date — is a much better fit for Cyrus. His family certainly approve.
“I have met Miley, she’s a good match for him. In person she is very down to earth and pleasant,” one member of Morando’s family told Page Six.
And while the budding rock star may be younger, he’s wise beyond his years.
“He’s very mature and grounded,” said the family member, adding Morando they’ve always known he was a good catch.
“He was always really kind — selfless. He’s always been someone that all the girls had crushes on. He’s always been a cutie.”
The post Miley Cyrus’ fiancé, Maxx Morando, was still living with his parents when they started dating: sources appeared first on Page Six.
