What happened between Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus?

Everyone loves a little celebrity drama — especially if it involves some sort of family feud. Typically, we tune in to The Kardashians to watch a dystopian version of life through the eyes of billionaires, but this time, not even Kourtney’s melodrama is compelling enough to distract us from the Cyrus family rift.

It’s not every day that we get drama involving Miley Cyrus and her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, so we know it’s serious. We’ve all seen bits and pieces of the story circulating: a divorce was in the works, it happened, the family got divided, and then insults were thrown around. It’s a wild story from start to finish, and it’s been brewing for some time now. So let’s recap the events and see how Miley and Billy Ray’s relationship unraveled.

What did Billy Ray Cyrus do?

In an audio recording published by the Daily Mail, Billy Ray Cyrus allegedly referred to his daughter Miley as a “devil” and a “skank.” Throughout the clip, Billy Ray appears erratic as he belittles and shouts at his then-wife Firerose, calling her a “selfish bitch,” along with other unkind words directed at her. This bit of the clip was only the tip of a very long iceberg.

As the audio continues, he also makes derogatory comments about his ex-wife Tish’s children, Brandi (37) and Trace (35), despite having adopted them after marrying Tish Cyrus. The shocking clip also hears Billy Ray referring to himself in the third person while talking about his ex-wife, the children he adopted, and his biological daughter, Miley.

“The other two children that were there were s–t from a previous marriage before she met Billy Ray. No woman, I said that wrong. Not from a previous marriage. The other two children that were there — she was impregnated by two different men and had those two children before she met Billy Ray. Brandi, Trace, and of course, the devil’s a skank.”

This is not the first time we’ve heard of tension within the Cyrus family. When Tish and Billy Ray separated, the family seemed to take sides. Billy Ray and Tish’s biological children, Noah (24) and Braison (30) appear to have sided with Billy Ray, as neither of them attended their mother’s wedding to Dominic Purcell. Meanwhile, Miley, Brandi, and Trace seem to have cut ties with Billy Ray instead.

According to the Daily Mail, Miley completely cut off contact with her biological father after it was revealed that he had started dating Firerose, who is only a few years older than Miley herself. Billy Ray had met Firerose decades earlier on the set of Hannah Montana, but their relationship reportedly only began years later, in August 2022. By October, the couple had married, and seven months later, they divorced.

At this time, there is still no confirmation that Miley has reconciled with her father after all that has allegedly happened. There’s also no indication that Braison has reconnected with his mother, although Noah and Tish have been seen together since the audio clip was leaked — despite the false rumors that Noah had previously dated Tish’s new husband. This was a lot to cover, oof.