Tish Cyrus is getting vulnerable.
During her 30-year marriage to ex-husband Billy Ray Cyrus, both she and Billy Ray filed for divorce on separate occasions over a decade before their official split in 2022. Now, Tish is sharing how it was the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic—during which her husband went to Tennessee and Tish was alone in their California home for two years—that finally gave her the strength to leave her marriage.
"During that period, I took a really good, hard look at life, my life, and like, 'What was I gonna do?'" she told Alex Cooper during the Feb. 7 episode of Call Her Daddy, adding of her relationship, "Because it had not been in a good place for a long time. And I think I did stay so long out of fear of being alone. Like I had met him when I was 23, 24."
She continued, "So being alone, and all of a sudden just having kind of the weight of the world off my shoulders, and I was able to just breathe. And smoke pot and garden, and go skinny dipping in my pool. That's what I did during covid. It was hugely transformative."
But just as she was learning how to thrive while being on her own, tragedy struck: Her mom passed away in August 2020.
"I was alone during that time, I had to go through it alone, and I literally can't believe I did that," Tish reflected. "It was so crazy, my two biggest fears in life were being alone and my mom passing away. And I had one month of a complete psychological breakdown. It was the worst thing, it was not good. I just kind of pushed the mom thing under the rug, and then the divorce thing came."
She added, "I could not eat, I could not sleep, I could not stop crying. I don't have my mom, and then I don't have my husband that has been my husband for 30 years. Like I'm scared."
But in the years since her divorce and her mom's passing, Tish has once again found happiness in love with Dominic Purcell. She and the Prison Break actor tied the knot in a Malibu ceremony in August 2023, for which her and Billy Ray's daughter Miley Cyrus, 30, was present (the former couple are also parents to Brandi, 36, Trace, 34, Braison, 29, and Noah, 23).
Notably, the "Flowers" singer was absent when her father married singer Firerose in October 2023.
But when looking back on her decades with Billy Ray, Tish tries not to dwell on what could have been if she'd made different decisions.
"I really didn't want Noah to still be young," she explained when asked if she wished she'd left her marriage earlier, "but looking back on it, it would have been much better for her had I left."
For more on the complicated histories of the Cyrus family, keep reading.
How the Cyrus Family Started
Billy Ray Cyrus married Tish Cyrus (née Leticia Finley) on Dec. 28, 2003.
At the time they already shared 12-month-old daughter Destiny Hope Cyrus—you may know her as Miley Cyrus now—and Tish was pregnant with their son Braison Cyrus, who was born May 9, 1994.
Seven months before Miley was born on Nov. 23, 1992, Billy Ray's ex-girlfriend Kristin Luckey gave birth to their son Christopher Cody Cyrus on April 8.
When the "Achy Breaky Heart" singer married Tish, he adopted her daughter Brandi Cyrus (born May 26, 1987) and son Trace Cyrus (Feb. 24, 1989), whose biological father is their mom's ex-husband Baxter Helson.
Trish and Billy Ray's youngest, daughter Noah Cyrus, was born Jan. 8, 2000.
Father-Daughter Stardom
From 2006 to 2010, Billy Ray played the father of Miley's normal-kid-who-moonlights-as-a-pop-star character in the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana and a 2009 film adaptation.
While the Cyrus family was still based in Nashville, Billy Ray and Miley made the move to L.A. to jumpstart her own entertainment career.
Where There's Smoke...
Billy Ray and Tish announced in October 2010 that they were getting divorced, but by the following year were back together.
They filed for divorce again in June 2013 but reconsidered barely a month later, telling E! News at the time that they'd been to couple's counseling and it had done wonders for them.
But before they reconciled, when the news broke that her dad had made the first move in a Nashville court to end his marriage after 19 years, Miley tweeted, "@billyraycyrus since your text and email obviously aren't working would you like to talk like this?"
Miley Starts Over
After a decade of being together off and on, and in the wake of losing their Malibu home in a fire, Miley and her The Last Song co-star Liam Hemsworth married in December 2018.
The decision came "from a place of trauma and just trying to rebuild as quickly as we could," Miley recalled on her "Used to Be Young" TikTok series.
But Liam filed for divorce in August 2019 and they finalized the paperwork in January 2020.
"It's honestly very simple," a source told E! at the time. "They fell in love when they were young and they are just different people now."
The Family Tree Keeps Growing
Tish and Billy Ray became grandparents in 2021 when their son Braison and his wife Stella welcomed son Bear Chance Cyrus on June 8.
Billy Ray and Tish Split Up for Good
Tish filed for divorce fo a third time in April 2022, and this time it stuck.
Moreover, her petition citing "irreconcilable differences" noted that she and her husband of almost 30 years hadn't lived together since February 2020.
"It is after 30 years, five amazing children and a lifetime of memories, we have decided to go our separate ways—not with sadness, but with love in our hearts," Tish and Billy Ray told People in a statement. "We have grown up together, raised a family we can be so proud of, and it is now time to create our own paths."
The exes noted that they hadn't come to the decision to split up for good "lightly or quickly," adding, "We will always be family and look forward to a continued and loving shared experience as friends and parents."
Billy Ray Cyrus Moves on With Firerose
Billy Ray quietly got engaged to Australian singer Firerose, who's 27 years his junior, in August 2022 but waited to confirm the news until that November.
"Growing up in Australia, my love of music was predominant over everything," Firerose told People. "I've known his music since forever."
What started as a friendship turned into more during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"All of the sudden, the life that I've always known as a touring artist didn't exist anymore," Billy Ray said. "A moment of so much change. And at the same time, Firerose, who had been such a light of positivity, such a best friend. And then when we began sharing the music, it just evolved more into, as musical soulmates, to soulmates, happy, pure love that to me, I didn't know could exist."
Tish Cyrus Finds Love With Dominic Purcell
Around the time her ex-husband confirmed his engagment in November 2022, Tish went Instagram-official with Prison Break actor Dominic Purcell.
They got engaged in April 2023 and tied the knot that August in Malibu at sunset with Miley, Trace and Brandi all standing by their mom's side.
"Life is unpredictable & always full of changes," Trace captioned a photo of himself and two of his sibling with the bride. "I think the most important thing to do is cherish the past, look forward to the future, & always be happy in the present moment because that’s really all we have."
"To see my mom this happy and in love is very emotional for me," Miley told Vogue last summer ahead of her mom's wedding. "Dom and my mom share the sweetest, most genuine love. It's almost like it's for the first time, which is so fitting for my mom who is such a young soul."
As for her dad's next chapter, however, a source close to Miley told E! News in October 2022 that she wasn't in love with it and didn't have a relationship with her future stepmom.
"The divorce between her parents put a strain on her relationship with her dad and it's been hard to connect with him in the last year," the source said. "She hopes they can eventually work on their relationship."
Billy Ray told People that November, however, that his family had "no hard feelings" about his engagement.
"Everybody's turning the page," he said. "It's been a lot, but everyone knew that it was time for a change."
He and Firerose got married on Oct. 10, 2023, calling it the "beautiful, joyous day that our two souls united as one in holy matrimony."
Where the Family Stands Now
Whatever rift opened up between Miley and her dad apparently hadn't been repaired by the night of the 2024 Grammys on Feb. 4.
Tish and Brandi were there, as was Miley's boyfriend Maxx Morando, and they all got shout-outs when the "Flowers" singer won Record of the Year.
As Miley concluded her speech, "I don’t think I forgot anyone."