The Stunning Transformation Of Tish Cyrus

Tish Cyrus had a relatively normal life before her daughter, Miley, became an international sensation. The Nashville native went from being a stay-at-home mother to a professional momager in what seemed like an overnight transition, as "Hannah Montana" became an instant success on Disney Channel when it premiered in 2006. 

She battled many hardships in the public eye, from the constant criticism her daughter received over the years to the cracks in her former marriage with famous country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. However, the show must go on, and Tish managed to keep a smile as she supported her daughter Miley's ups and downs and raised her daughters, Noah and Brandi, and her sons, Trace and Braison. Now freshly married to her third husband, "Prison Break" star Dominic Purcell, things are looking up for the mother of five. Tish has come a long way from her days mending her achy breaky heart, and the future looks bright. "Now that I've gotten older, I am trying to make more time for things that I'm passionate about and do things that I really want to do," she told New Beauty. 

So how does a small-town girl turn into a manager for one of the entertainment industry's biggest stars? Here's a look at the stunning transformation of Tish Cyrus. 

Miley Cyrus may have the voice, but Tish had the twinkle toes! The Nashville native grew up practicing ballet, and Tish even dreamed of making it big before she decided to go down a different path. "She danced ballet from the time she was three till she was 30, but she was very shy," Miley told Rolling Stone. "She could never do this, so she wanted it for me." 

Tish wasn't just shy; she's struggled with anxiety most of her life, which partly kept her from pursuing a ballet career. "My anxiety has affected me since I was in my 20s," she explained to People. "I lost my dad when I was 19 to lung cancer, and just seeing what he went through gave me so much health anxiety." To get her mental health in check, Tish took up exercising and began working with a therapist. 

Tish may not have gone on to star in the Nutcracker, but that doesn't mean she's lost her touch. The momager posted a TikTok video alongside her daughter, Brandi, in which she's line dancing a choreographed routine in cowboy boots to the song "Austin" by Dasha — and she certainly doesn't have two left feet!

Before Billy Ray Cyrus came along, Tish Cyrus was married once before to her first husband, Baxter Neal Helson. Helson was a drummer in Kentucky when they met, performing mostly in local events or at different bars. Helson and Tish were married from 1986 to 1989, and they had two children together: their daughter, Brandi, and their son, Trace. 

After a contentious split that led to a heated custody battle, Helson moved away from the spotlight and reportedly relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. While he was awarded visitation rights after splitting with Tish, his relationship with Brandi and Trace is allegedly not the best. Tish's future husband, Billy Ray, ultimately adopted Brandi and Trace in 1993, and the children have yet to speak publicly about Helson.

As their relationship blossomed, Tish went on to grow her family with Billy Ray Cyrus. The couple first met in 1991 at a club, not long before he blew up with his best-selling hit "Achy Breaky Heart." He was instantly drawn to her because she was the sober one out of her group of friends, as the story goes, though she admits she began to let her hair down more when the couple became official. Their relationship was rocky at first, but they eventually became a solid unit, especially as Billy Ray's career began to take off in the early '90s. 

Eventually, Tish and Billy Ray welcomed their first child, Miley, together in 1992, and they wed the following year. In 1994, Tish gave birth to their second biological child, a son named Braison, followed by their daughter Noah in 2000. 

Billy Ray Cyrus was off on tour in the '90s, leaving Tish to hold down the fort at home. Tish was a hands-on mom, and Miley credits her for giving her a wholesome and loving childhood. "Really, my mom raised me," she shared on Netflix's "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman."

While being a stay-at-home mom, she began to take up new passions, leaning into a newfound love of interior design to keep her occupied. "When Billy Ray and I first got married, we lived in an A-frame house in Kentucky, and I didn't even know you could get drapes made — I used to get drapes from Dillard's," she explained in an interview with Architectural Digest. The mother of five contracted a designer to help give the house some life, and she soon found out she had a knack for design as well. "Billy Ray was always on the road; I was always alone with the kids, and it gave me something to focus on. I became very close with the interior designer," she elaborated. 

While Tish admitted that her family is her priority, as evidenced by her support for her daughters Noah and Miley in their music careers, interior design is a close second. "The interior design space is such a passion for me. I love it," she shared in an interview with New Beauty in 2021. "It's what I do when I first wake up and the last thing I do before I go to bed — I'm just out there looking for inspiration. I think that's where I'd love to go next." While Tish revealed that she doesn't expect to take on clients in the future, she is toying with the idea of potentially launching an interior line at some point. 

Tish Cyrus didn't have the role of manager mapped out for her future before "Hannah Montana" exploded onto the scene. Once Miley became a global superstar, though, she learned the ropes rather quickly. In an interview with "Chicks in the Office," she revealed, "I just was kind of thrown into that when we moved here to do Hannah Montana," talking about her family's move to Los Angeles for Miley's work with Disney Channel. 

Tish explained that she managed her daughter alone for years before bringing in another co-manager. Further, she also co-manages her daughter Noah's career — and make no mistake, she's putting in the work. "I'm busy ... It's not just a name that I say that I am ... I manage them."

"I love it," Tish further gushed about her role in her daughters' bustling careers, noting that the job got much easier when they became adults. "When they were younger it was harder because there were times that we would be on tour and I'd have to ground Miley and she would be like 'You're fired!' and I'm like 'You're not 18!'" Tish joked. Nowadays, Miley and she are the best of friends, which Tish shared makes her nervous at times in terms of making a mistake. "It's a lot of pressure just because I don't want to make mistakes knowing that I'm her mom ... Somehow it's worked out really well for us," Tish expressed.

Cracks in Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus' marriage first emerged in 2010 when the country singer filed for divorce that October, noting irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. Around that same time, it was rumored that Tish had an extramarital affair with former "Rock of Love" star Bret Michaels, but the rockstar refuted the claims. 

The spouses wrote a joint statement at the time, saying, "As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family. We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers."

The pair ultimately reconciled the following year, however, with the country star blaming "Hannah Montana" for his family's demise. " ... It destroyed my family," he expressed in a GQ interview in 2011. "I'll tell you right now — the damn show destroyed my family." Billy Ray went on "The View" months after his filing to share the news of his rekindled relationship with Tish, revealing, (per People), "I've dropped the divorce. I want to put my family back together. Things are the best they've ever been."

The roles reversed in 2013, and this time it was Tish Cyrus who filed for divorce from Billy Ray Cyrus. The producer decided to end their 19-year marriage almost three years after the country singer decided to part ways — briefly — in 2010. "This is a personal matter and we are working to find a resolution that is in the best interest of our family," Tish shared with People in a statement. "We ask that you respect our privacy at this time."

The manager, who listed their date of separation as "to be determined," asked for joint primary and legal custody of their then-underage daughter Noah at the time, allowing Billy Ray visitation rights. Tish also requested alimony in her filing, asking that the country singer pay for her legal fees as well. 

But the pair shocked the internet just a month later when their second divorce filing was reneged. A month after the news of their divorce surfaced, they were featured on Instagram getting cozy with one another, posting a now-deleted photo on the couch with the caption "Date Night." Billy Ray and Tish admitted to working through their issues in couples therapy and calling off the divorce for a second time, revealing in a statement, "We both woke up and realized we love each other and decided we want to stay together."

Tish Cyrus revealed that a freak accident influenced her to try marijuana. The producer told New Beauty that after a tour bus she and Noah were traveling in caught on fire, she had trouble sleeping on buses at night. "We lost everything," Tish shared. " ... I already had issues when we were on the road — mainly because I'm a control freak — but this accident sent it over the edge as far as me being able to go to bed at night." 

While she tried to take Ambien for a bit, her daughter Miley suggested she try something more natural to alleviate her sleep problems. "I don't think that it's for everyone, but it really was this miracle thing for me — it truly calmed my anxiety and helped me to sleep." After years of being anti-marijuana, Tish eventually became an advocate for cannabis, and it became a huge part of her life. 

On an episode of her and Brandi's joint podcast, "Sorry We're Stoned," the mother of five admitted that it wasn't until she was 46 that she smoked weed for the first time. Looking back, she realized that she should've started decades earlier. "I think I would've been a better parent, if I would've smoked [when I was raising my children.] I think I would've been ... like, I don't know, school projects, I would've felt more fun," she remarked. Tish also shared that weed had come between her and her daughter in the past when Miley was using and smoking weed heavily. "She loved weed. And at that time, I didn't smoke weed," she remembered. "And I was not happy with her." Oh, how the tables have turned ...

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult in more ways than one for Tish Cyrus. Not only was she dealing with a global pandemic, but she also grappled with the loss of her mother and living on her own for the first time. "I always had two big fears in life: One, living alone, because I never have ... you can imagine after five kids and, two, losing my mom," she acknowledged in her New Beauty interview. "And both of those happened in the past year."

Tish revealed that Billy Ray Cyrus was holed up in Nashville during the pandemic, meaning she had to face things she never imagined alone. "His mom is there, she's 85 and he didn't want to fly, so he stayed out there with her," she explained. "So, I was alone and, then in the midst of it, I lost my mom. My two biggest fears came true, and I survived them. It's not easy." 

The manager shared that her faith was her saving grace, allowing her to see the light at the end of the tunnel during such a dark period of her life. "Truly, if I didn't have my faith, my family ... I think if I didn't realize that there was 'more,' I don't know how I would have gotten through it," she shared. "But I do know that I'm stronger because of it."

After two failed divorce attempts, Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus finally divorced (for real this time) in 2022. Tish was the one to file the papers that April, and noted "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split. The former spouses delivered a statement to People following the news, saying, "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 ... We have grown up together, raised a family we can be so proud of, and it is now time to create our own paths." 

It seemed there was trouble in the water for years, as Tish cited that she and Billy Ray had not been living under one roof in the two years leading up to their divorce filing. 

Just months after the divorce was filed, Billy Ray got engaged to Australian singer Firerose. All eyes were on the Cyrus family's reactions to the news, but the "She's Not Cryin' Anymore" singer assured fans that it was all water under the bridge between him and Tish. "Everyone knew that that relationship [with Tish] was over a long time ago," Billy Ray told People in the fall of 2022. "Everybody's turning the page." 

Tish indeed seemed the least bit bothered, as she quickly moved on with "Prison Break" star Dominic Purcell around the same time. 

Tish Cyrus moved on from Billy Ray Cyrus and right into the Instagram account of her future beau, Dominic Purcell. The two were first linked in 2016 when the actor slid into her DMs, but his girlfriend at the time blocked Tish shortly after, so Tish didn't see the message until the following year. "I had followed him on Instagram and he DMed me and just said, 'Hey Tish, just wanted to [say], I think you're super cool and ... you're doing such a great job with your family,'" she shared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. Eventually, Tish reached back out following her divorce from Billy Ray — and the rest is history.

Tish and Purcell started seeing each other in the fall of 2022 and made their relationship social media official by that November. The "Assassin" star got down on one knee the following April, and the two tied the knot in an August ceremony in Malibu. The Nashville native gushed about her relationship on "Call Her Daddy," expressing, "I am living my best life — and he is yummy." Tish declared, "There is not one second that I do not feel loved by him." 

Not everybody was over the moon about Tish Cyrus' relationship with Dominic Purcell. Several months after the pair got married, reports surfaced that the "Prison Break" star had been involved with her daughter, Noah, before they got together. "Noah and Dominic were seeing each other in a friends-with-benefits way, off and on," an insider revealed to People. "They stopped seeing each other and then Tish started something up. Tish knew he had been seeing Noah."

While the source claimed that Noah and the actor had cut things off by the time he started pursuing her mom, things remained pretty icy between the mother-daughter duo ever since. It might be the reason why many speculated the "July" singer decided to skip out on Tish's nuptials to Purcell in August of 2023. 

Despite the rumor mill, it seems the mother-and-daughter duo may be trying to move past whatever bad blood existed. In May of 2024, Noah celebrated her mother's birthday by posting a throwback photo of the two to her Instagram Story (via PageSix), writing, "Happy birthday mom." Neither Tish nor Noah have spoken publicly about the reported love triangle.