Tish Cyrus has opened up about why she and Billy Ray really got divorced after almost 30 years together.
The music manager and Achy Breaky Heart singer finally called it quits in 2022 and both married new partners last year.
Appearing on the Call Me Daddy podcast days after daughter Miley hit headlines after snubbing dad Billy during her acceptance speech after winning at the Grammys, Tish admits she thinks the marriage should have ended years prior as there “was so much disrespect on both parts”.
In 2010, Billy filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable difference. But in 2011, the musician dropped the divorce.
Two years later, Tish filed for divorce, but the couple rekindled their relationship.
In April 2022, Tish filed for divorce a second time, with papers revealing they had been separated for two years.
Speaking about why they finally decided to end the marriage, she confessed that they had been living apart during the pandemic - she stayed in California with Miley, while Billy stayed in Tennessee.
She said: “I really during that period took a good, hard look at my life and was like ‘what was I going to do?’ It had not been in a good place for a long time.
“I think I did say so long out of fear of being alone. I met him when I was 23/ 24. Being alone and all of a sudden, having the weight of my world off my shoulders in some ways, I was able to just breathe and smoke pot in the garden and go skinny-dipping in my pool. That's what I did during Covid.”
Then, her two biggest fears happened, she explained: “My two biggest fears in my life were being alone and my mum passing away. I just remember calling Doctor Amen and going: ‘put me in a mental hospital’.
“I could not eat, sleep or stop crying. I literally weighed like 130bs.
“Looking back on it, it would have been better for her had I left. It would have been much better,” she told podcast host Alexandra Cooper.
“I just never wanted to get a divorce. My mum and dad met on a Monday and married on a Friday. They were married for thirty years until my dad passed away.
“The things that I wanted my parents just did have an unreal type of love. I was adopted. It was just good.
“We get hung up on what we want it to be. I'm looking at it like: ‘I just want us to keep our family together’ like it looked perfect but it was really frigging hard.
“When it fell apart, I stopped changing myself. I literally made the decision moving on with my life, it worked out for the best.“I will never put up with disrespect. I didn't even know until I had a new relationship that there was so much respect, how much disrespect there was in my marriage before, on both our parts.”
