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For Miley Cyrus, adulthood means seeing her parents not as her mom and dad, but as individuals outside their parent-child relationship.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday, the “Flowers” singer spoke about growing up in the public eye and as part of a famous Hollywood family.
Rumors of a Cyrus family feud have swirled since her parents, Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus-Purcell, finalized their divorce in 2022.
When asked if she was still estranged from her father, she told the Times, “No. I think timing is everything.”
“As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents — because 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,” Cyrus said.
Her parents were married for almost 30 years before they officially called it quits. They previously filed for divorce in 2010 and 2013, but reconciled both times.
Her mother married “Prison Break” star Dominic Purcell in 2023. Her father married Australian singer, Firerose, in 2024, but they divorced just seven months later. Since April, he has been in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley.
Cyrus says she’s made peace with the fact that her parents have moved on to having relationships with other people.
“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,” she said.
“I’m being an adult about it. 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,” Cyrus added.
In the interview, the “Hannah Montana” star also spoke about learning to rely less on her mother.
Instead, she now imagines what her mom would do in uncomfortable situations and tries to mirror it.
“And now I just go, ‘What was it about her that made everything better?’ It was safety, because I knew any situation that I didn’t feel safe in, my mom would get me out of it or make it better. And so now I just imagine what soothed me about her, and then I do it for myself,” she said.
Cyrus isn’t the only celebrity who has spoken about navigating the changing parent-child relations in their lives.
In a 2024 appearance on “Today with Hoda and Jenna,” Molly Shannon said parents should see their teens as “regular people” and have more empathy.
“Most of the time, they just want to be heard. I try to think of that,” Shannon said.
A representative for Cyrus did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
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