Sad Details About The Cyrus Family

This article includes references to addiction and mental health.

Singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus burst onto screens in 2006 with her Disney Channel persona Miley Stewart. As the epitome of 2000s teen pop culture, the "Hannah Montana" star made Cyrus a household family for Millennials and Gen Z. But longtime music fans know she wasn't the first singer in the family. As the daughter of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus and entertainment manager and producer Tish Cyrus, Miley is the oldest of four in the Cyrus family.

The couple got together in 1991, welcoming Miley later the next year. They quietly married in 1993, at which time Billy Ray Cyrus adopted Tish Finley's children, Brandi and Trace. Billy Ray also had a son, Christopher Cody Cyrus (who he is mostly estranged from), seven months before Miley was born with another woman, Kristin Luckey. The couple then welcomed two more kids, son Braison in 1994 and daughter Noah in 2000.

For most of her life, the "Malibu" singer enjoyed a close relationship with her family. She told British Vogue in 2021: "Like all families, we're also complex, but we embrace the fact that each of us are so different from one another ... [o]ur family makes unconditional love a priority." But, unfortunately, life hasn't always been a bed of roses for the Cyrus clan. A marriage breakdown, health complications, and the difficulties of living life in the public eye have taken their toll. Keep reading for sad details about the Cyrus family.

Miley Cyrus has created quite a legacy for herself. By the time she entered her 30s, she'd starred in her own Disney Channel series and a TV movie, released seven albums, and scooped up a handful of Teen Choice Awards. That was a lot for her sister, Noah Cyrus, who is eight years her junior, to live up to. And it wasn't always easy, according to the youngest Cyrus sibling, who said she struggled to grow up in Miley's shadow.

She first started to put her feelings into words in her EP "Young & Sad," which she released in 2020. The lyric "My sister's like sunshine, bringing good light wherever she'll go / And I was born to rain clouds, blessed in her shadows," is a direct commentary on this. "I think just the message in the second verse, being born in the family I was in, everyone gave me such a hard time for having a hard time being Miley's little sister," Cyrus explained in an Instagram Live (via Metro).

She added: "That was something I heard my whole life, every single day, my whole life. It was either that or that I wasn't enough in some way, whether it was the way I look or the way I am." Happily, and in part due to that song, Noah Cyrus has managed to carve out a space for herself in the entertainment industry outside of her family's shadow.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Eventually, Noah Cyrus followed in Miley Cyrus' footsteps in more ways than one. The "Hannah Montana" star has been open about her journey to sobriety after making the commitment to a sober lifestyle at the end of 2019. The following year, Noah Cyrus talked about her addiction and the steps she took to get sober.

Noah Cyrus told Rolling Stone that she was 18 when tried Xanax. It was her boyfriend at the time who gave her the pills, and since everyone was doing it, including him, she agreed, thinking it would bring them closer. But before long, she was taking them all the time to keep her feeling numb and detached from real life. By the time the pandemic hit two years later, her addiction to Xanax had spiraled out of control, but a stark realization scared her into admitting she had a problem. "When I turned 20, I was overcome with the thought that I might not turn 21. Death upon my doorstep. If I took just one more step, there'd be nothing left of me except these songs," she said.

Making music and creating her debut album, "The Hardest Part," played a big part in helping Cyrus maintain her sobriety. "It gave me so much structure in the time that I really needed structure because I didn't want to just be sitting around and stirring in my brain," she explained, adding, "It gave me hope."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

With all their success in the entertainment industry, the Cyrus family might have looked perfect to onlookers at times. But that was not always the case behind the scenes. Tish and Billy Ray had a tumultuous relationship at times, which culminated in the couple separating and filing for divorce on more than one occasion. The first time was in 2010 when Billy Ray filed for divorce amid infidelity rumors before reuniting with his wife in 2011. They briefly separated again in 2013, during which time Tish filed for divorce before the pair got back together and tried to mend their problems with the help of a therapist.

However, it really was over the third time when Tish filed for divorce in April 2022. "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," the pair said in a joint statement to People. "We will always be family and look forward to a continued and loving shared experience as friends and parents."

The country music singer quickly moved on with Australian singer Firerose, and the pair announced their engagement in November 2022. Meanwhile, the momager has also found a new love and is engaged to "Prison Break" star Dominic Purcell. The pair went Instagram-official shortly after Billy Ray's announcement and got engaged in April 2023.

While Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus' kids were adults when they called it quits, it was still a difficult time for them all. "It's been a lot, but everyone knew that it was time for a change," Billy Ray Cyrus told People. Still, too much change can be difficult to handle, and when he announced his engagement to Firerose just a few months after his split with Tish, it reportedly caused a rift in the family. "Miley has been closer to her mom Tish throughout the divorce," an inside source told E! News. "The divorce between her parents [has] put a strain on her relationship with her dad and it's been hard to connect with him in the last year."

But, while the insider shared Miley Cyrus' hope to soon reconnect with her dad, that may not be on the cards. The Sun reported that the once-close father and daughter argued about how Billy Ray behaved at the end of his marriage to Trish. After this, they stopped speaking and unfollowed each other on Instagram.

Trace Cyrus is the second oldest of Trish and Billy Ray's kids. He followed his dad's footsteps in music, starting the emo-electro band "Metro Station" with Mason Musso, the older brother of Miley Cyrus' "Hannah Montana" co-star Mitchel Musso — although he was not super fond of the connection. "I wanted to see how long we could go without anybody knowing," Cyrus told the LA Times in 2008. "It's not like I didn't want to be associated with that, but I didn't want to be put in a genre where I had to be 'Approved for mothers and 12-year-olds.' I want to be myself."

In the interview, his younger sister praised him for forging a career for himself separate from the Cyrus name. But over the years, maintaining his identity outside of his family has taken its toll on him. Cyrus opened up about some of his struggles on social media, admitting that he's really neglected his health as a result. "I was mentally destroyed & it really affected my physical health ... Your mindset is everything. It can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy," he wrote on Twitter. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, according to the actor, but he put the work into getting his physical health back on track, and eventually turned the corner with his mental health, too.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

The ups and downs of family life and the entertainment industry aren't the only things Miley Cyrus has had to contend with in her life. While, on her way to securing another major career milestone — her first performance at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival in 2019 — she had a terrifying experience.

When traveling with her older sister, Brandi, their mom, and her music team, their plane almost crashed while trying to land. "Out of nowhere, as we're landing, we swoop back up and like bang to the left and turn. It feels crazy," Brandi revealed on her podcast "Your Favorite Things." As nervous fliers, Miley and Tish were freaking out. "And even though I'm scared, I was like, 'Someone has to be level-headed here' ... so, Miley's in my lap, my mom's holding my hand across the aisle ... and no one is telling us what's going on," she recalled.

When the plane returned to high altitude, they were told they had to divert to avoid another plane that was in their lane for landing. Lightning doesn't usually strike twice, but when they tried to land a second time, the same thing happened again and the family was left feeling terrified about their fate. On the third attempt, they were able to land safely. And, even after such a terrifying near-death experience, Miley Cyrus once again proved how strong she is by going on to rock her Glasto performance.

The second-youngest member of the Cyrus clan is Braison Cyrus, who was born two years after Miley Cyrus in 1994. Like his sister, he had a pretty terrifying near-death experience after some unexpected health complications when he was 18. The "Heels" actor underwent a routine tonsillectomy, after which he was sent home. But Cyrus ended up in the hospital after just a few days. "He woke himself up because he felt something running down his throat. He sat up and started spewing blood out of his mouth," his mom Trish Cyrus told E! News.

The momager raced her son to the hospital, but it was a while before he was out of danger. "I got in there and you could see the nurses and doctors in the emergency room were alarmed," she explained, noting that they were struggling to get the bleeding under control. "He was choking on his own blood! It was so traumatizing," she said. As a result, Braison Cyrus was taken to the theater for an operation to repair the bleeding artery.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Trish Cyrus said: "People do die from bleeding to death. If I had not gotten Braison to the hospital, it terrifies me to think what would have happened." She added that her son was traumatized from the experience and struggled with his mental health while recovering at home.

"Hannah Montana" came at a cost for the Cyrus family, particularly the show's star Miley Cyrus, who sacrificed her childhood for it. Her unparalleled success and millions of adoring fans made up for that, but the best part was getting to work with her dad every day ... until it wasn't. After a few seasons, things weren't working. "The business was driving a wedge between us," Billy Ray Cyrus admitted to GQ in 2011.

During his first split with Tish, the Cyrus family was fractured, and the father of six blamed the Disney show for causing so much destruction. Although the final season scored an impressive 80% on Rotten Tomatoes,  Billy Ray said it was the worst one yet. "It was a disaster. I was going to work every single day knowing that my family had fallen apart, but yet I had to sit in front of that camera. I look back and I go, 'How did I ever make it through that?'" he said.

When the series ended, the country music star expressed worrying concerns over his daughter's safety. She'd graduated straight from the show into adulthood and celebrated her 18th birthday by partying with a bong. And the "Achy Breaky Heart" singer, who didn't go to his daughter's birthday party, was worried this was just going to get worse. 

Miley Cyrus isn't the first star to have struggled with the end of their TV show. Jodie Sweetin turned to drugs and alcohol after "Full House," while Ariel Winter struggled with her sense of identity after "Modern Family" ended its 11-year run. Similarly, Miley Cyrus struggled with feelings of being forgotten and unloved once she took off Hannah's blonde wig. "[I was that] character almost as often as I was myself," she said on the "Rock This with Allison Hagendorf" podcast. "When you have this alter ego, you're valuable. You've got, like, millions of fans, you're the biggest star in the world, and then the concept was that when I looked like myself, when I didn't have the wig on anymore, no one cared about me, I wasn't a star anymore."

As Cyrus worried she couldn't live up to the success of "Hannah Montana," the character cast a shadow over the next few years of her life. She partied hard and tried to shed her good-girl, perfect-daughter image that had been curated for her on the Disney Channel show. It wasn't until her album 2013 "Bangerz" that she was able to start finding out who she was without the show through her music. Although this came with a lot of new tattoos and twerking, it helped her discover who she was after the Disney Channel.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

When his kids were growing up, Billy Ray Cyrus prided himself on his parenting style: being friends with his kids rather than a strict parent. It wasn't until 2011 that he started to consider that his parenting style might have failed him. When his daughter Miley started partying, he told GQ, "I should have been a better parent. I should have said, 'Enough is enough — it's getting dangerous and somebody's going to get hurt.' I should have, but I didn't."

But Miley isn't the only one of his kids he wished he'd been a better parent for. The country star has also struggled with his relationship with her older brother, Christopher Cody Cyrus, who grew up in South Carolina with his mom. The father and son didn't enjoy a particularly close relationship while he was growing up.

In 2009, Christopher's mom Kristin Luckey told The Mirror that Billy Ray's relationship with his son was virtually non-existent. "Chris reaches out to have a relationship, but it's been months since they engaged," she revealed. However, Billy Ray allegedly regrets not being a bigger part of his son's life, telling ABC News that in a perfect world, Christopher would have grown up living with his siblings in Tennessee. "But as we all know, it ain't a perfect world," he added.

"Hannah Montana" left Miley Cyrus in complete turmoil about her identity without the TV persona she and Disney created. But that wasn't her only difficult parting gift from the show. She told Marie Claire that the show promoted unrealistic beauty standards which led to body dysmorphia and anxiety. "I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show. I was made to look like someone that I wasn't, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn't on that show, it was like, Who the f**k am I?" Cyrus admitted.

Around the same time, she began to suffer from anxiety. The attacks would come on before shows, making her feel so unwell she'd often have to cancel. It kept getting worse; the anxiety would feed itself. "You get in this hole that seems like you're never going to be able to get out of," she said.

Although she continued performing, Miley Cyrus' anxiety never went away. She opened up about it to fans at a 2022 concert, asking, "Have you ever felt very anxious for no apparent reason and very insecure? I feel like that now and I don't know why, I was afraid because I felt alone" (via Twitter). She hoped by sharing her experience, she could help herself and others feel less alone.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Miley Cyrus' life — professional and personal — has been public property more so than that of any of her siblings. And for a decade, her high-profile on-off relationship with actor Liam Hemsworth was front and center. Following three brief splits, the pair married in December 2018 after losing their home in the California wildfires a few months earlier. "I'm not sure without losing Malibu, we would've been ready to take this step or ever even gotten married," she told Vanity Fair. "But the timing felt right and I go with my heart."

However, the pair ultimately couldn't make it work and split less than a year after tying the knot. She had some choice words to say after-the-fact: "I had a very public, very big breakup that was over a 10-year span of a relationship," Cyrus noted on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in 2020. "I tried not to get lost in the emotion ... It's like a death when you lose a loved one, it's that deep. It feels like a death." But after dropping her 2023 hit song "Flowers," it seems like she might be moving past some of that pain.