‘What was going on’: Miley Cyrus breaks silence on ‘medical emergency’ that became an ‘excruciating’ ordeal

Miley Cyrus takes the motto “the show must go on” extremely seriously. On Dec. 31, 2023, she co-hosted Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party alongside her superstar godmother Dolly Parton. It was all smiles and professionalism on stage as she welcomed guests David Byrne, Sia, Paris Hilton, and others on stage to perform.

But, behind the scenes, all was not well. In an appearance on The Zane Lowe Show earlier this week, Cyrus revealed that she’d spent the show suffering an “excruciating” medical emergency. As she explained: “I had a medical emergency. I had an ovarian cyst rupture. We didn’t know exactly what was going on so we did it.”

The pain of an ovarian cyst rupture has been compared to appendicitis, with possibly symptoms including nausea, vomiting, fever, dizziness from blood loss, vision changes and, as Cyrus recounts – extreme abdominal pain: “It was pretty traumatic because it was extremely excruciating and I did the show anyway. But it was really, really hard on me.”

Miley said that during the New Year's Eve show with Dolly Parton, she had a ruptured ovarian cyst and was in a lot of pain, but she still performed anyway! pic.twitter.com/sg1HLITg4n

— MILEY DATA (@datamileycyrus) May 21, 2025

She almost quit

Experiencing that and then being all smiles on stage and performing to millions of people was apparently so traumatic it almost made Cyrus go into early retirement. She said she changed her mind after having dinner with SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who told her “‘Six months. Everybody has six months to feel sorry for themselves and then we start to rebuild” and “You have no idea how many artists have sat in this chair and told me they were quitting music. Everyone does this, everyone has these traumatic experiences.”

Cyrus took Michaels’ advice to heart and took a break, though has performed guest songs on various albums and appeared on two specials to mark the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. But in a few days, on May 30, she’s back with her ninth studio album Something Beautiful, which is centered around the theme of healing. The album will be accompanied by a movie intended as a “visual companion” to the album, being billed as a “one of a kind pop opera”.

Given all this, “healing” seems like a great topic for Cyrus to cover. And, rewatching her performances at that traumatic 2023 special, you wouldn’t ever know she was horrible pain throughout. What a trouper.