Miley Cyrus opens up about her complex family life in a new interview with David Letterman, streaming now on Netflix.
Miley Cyrus is opening up about her complex family dynamic in a new interview with David Letterman.

The GRAMMY-winning performer sits down with the legendary television host at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel for the latest episode of his Netflix interview series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.

In the special, Miley opens up about everything from child stardom to sobriety to why she’s most proud of her GRAMMY-winning 2023 single, “Flowers.”

But the former Disney Channel star is perhaps most candid while talking about her relationship with her parents, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus. After nearly three decades of marital ups and downs and raising six children together, Billy Ray and Tish ultimately divorced in 2022.

The family has seemingly become even more divided in recent years as both went on to marry new partners — though Billy Ray recently filed for divorce from wife Firerose after less than a year of marriage. Rumors swirled when some of Tish’s children did not attend her wedding to Dominic Purcell, in which Miley served as maid of honor, and there’s been talk that some of the Cyrus children are also estranged from her dad.

When asked in the special if her father — who preceded her in musical stardom — is her personal hero, Miley pauses for a long moment before confessing, “I mean, honestly, my mom is my hero.”

However, she says she still has a “lot of love” for Billy Ray, noting that the way each of her parents contributed to her successes today “can’t be weighed on the same scale.”

She adds that while she inherited her father’s “perspective and reality on life,” it was Tish who truly raised her.

With a maturity that comes with age, Miley admits that her parents’ familial instincts probably were heavily impacted by how they themselves were raised. She recounts that Tish was adopted as a baby by a couple who desperately wanted children of their own, and that she lived a happy childhood, “spoiled” and “wanted” by Miley’s beloved late grandmother.

On the other hand, Miley recounts, “My dad had a really rough childhood, and my childhood — I mean, we can go and talk about the hard times or the struggles… but I had food, I had love, I grew up in a beautiful big house, and my dad didn’t have that.”

While Tish’s maternal instincts shaped Miley into the woman she is today, she also shares how much of her artistry was shaped by her father.

“Without my dad, I know… who I am as a person wouldn’t exist,” she explains. “Because my dad as a creative and like, as an artist, and the way his brain works has always made me feel safer in my own mind.”

“He also has a relationship and a foot on the ground to nature and to the real. And he always did, even when he was super famous,” she adds. “I’m grateful for being able to watch him ahead of me. He’s almost like, given me this map — there is a map of what to do and what not to do — and he’s guided me on both.”
Miley Cyrus got her start starring alongside dad Billy Ray Cyrus on ‘Hannah Montana.’ – Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
There is however, at least one negative trait that Miley will confess to inheriting from her father.

When asked about the time period when she and her family moved to Los Angeles so she could begin working on Hannah Montana, Miley pauses to try and remember which family members initially made the trip with her.

“I also inherited the narcissism from my father,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t know anything about my own siblings except for the part that I was doing… I was moving to L.A., and that’s all I really knew.”

While she’s been in the spotlight all her life, Miley hit a new level of fame this year when she won her first-ever GRAMMY Awards for “Flowers,” and took the stage at the ceremony for a show-stopping performance — which she sees as one of her most personal records to date.
Miley Cyrus performs ‘Flowers’ at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards. – VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

“Writing it feels one way, but having it loved, and so entirely loved feels so different,” she shares of the track. “I’ve actually never felt so proud of a song for doing well… Because it was earned, it feels different when people really relate to it.”

Cyrus’ episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is streaming now on Netflix.