Billy and Miley learned from their mistakes together and repaired their once strained relationship with love and support.
Being a parent of a famous kid can be tricky. You are filled with pride at seeing your child achieve their dreams and become successful. But with fame comes its boons and banes. And most of the time, the bad overpowers the good. Parents find their beloved celebrity kids in the midst of self-destruction and try to figure out ways in which they can help.
Singer Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus' partnership as on-screen father and daughter on the show, Hannah Montana, made them a household name. Soon Miley outgrew from being the country music star's daughter to creating a name for herself, which famously pushed her down the road of self-destruction, which nearly destroyed the entire family and its reputation.
In a GQ Magazine interview, he expressed his sadness of pushing his daughter into the world of glitz and glamour so early in life. “The damn show destroyed my family," he said, referring to Hannah Montana and continued, "...I'd take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just everybody be okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I'd erase it all in a second if I could."
Miley was only 12, still a kid when she starred in the popular Disney series for the first time. She lived the life of her on-screen persona until she was 18. The growing woman in her wanted to be someone different. Her infamous salvia incident video hit the internet in 2010, destroying her good-girl image forever. Soon after, Billy and Tish Cyrus filing for a divorce in 2011 to end their 17-year-old marriage. Though they got back together after a while.
According to Goal Cast, while the news of the divorce was certainly shocking for the young starlet, Billy blamed himself more for Miley's descent into the wrong track. While talking to GQ Magazine he said, “I’m scared for her. She’s got a lot of people around her that’s putting her in a great deal of danger."
Being a celebrity himself before his daughter and understanding the hardships she faces, he continued, "I know she’s 18 but I still feel like, as her daddy, I’d like to try to help. Take care of her just a little bit, to at least get her out of danger." Explaining his desire to lend a helping hand to his daughter, he said, “I want to get her sheltered from the storm. Stop the insanity for a minute. When you go through what she’s been through, it takes a beating on you.”
The Achy Breaky Heart singer expressed his remorse for not being the father that Miley deserved as a star kid knowing the things that could go along the path of fame. He said, "You know what, there's no doubt I did stuff when I was a teenager that I'm sure could have turned out horribly. I've done some stupid crap — I do stupid crap. We all do. But it's different when you sit back and you see it happening to your little girl." He continued, "I feel like I got to try. It's my daughter. And some of these handlers are perhaps more interested in handling Miley's money than her safety and her career."
The candid GQ interview made the father-daughter relationship publicly tumultuous until Miley confirmed that they were on better grounds in the 2013 interview with the Rolling Stones. She said, “We have a different relationship now. Now I hear all these crazy stories from him..." they bonded over their common grounds of mistakes they made as young and wild beings. Letting Miley make her own mistakes and learning from them helped the daughter and father reconcile their relationship.
Billy was by the Wrecking Ball hitmaker's side during her on and off relationship with her ex-hubby Liam Hemsworth. The problem seemed to have started after the singer's raunchy VMA performance. They got back together and tied the knot only to call it off after six months.
The doting dad proudly talked about his daughter in an interview with Pierce Morgan saying, "She’s just Miley. She’s an artist. She’s real," reported CNN. "I think that what’s happened over the years, Miley has been reinventing her sound. She’s evolving as an artist herself. I think that all of what everyone is calling controversy now, that’s still my Miley," he said.
While Billy mentored Miley in her early days, the We Can't Stop singer has few words for her dad too. Billy told CMT, "Miley had said to me, ’If the world says go left, go right,'” he said. “And I looked at her, and I said, ’You know what? I’m gonna take your advice on that.'”
Now that Miley has made her own identity in the industry and found her real self, her relationship with her folks has also only gotten better. “Somewhere along the stress and strain of different things I didn’t see her smiling as often for a little while and, all of a sudden she’s like the sun…," said Billy as reported by Huffington Post. "Everything happens for a reason and the main thing for me, as Miley’s daddy, is she’s happy,” he continued.
The two have learned to identify themselves as individuals who will be there for each other at all times and overcoming the problems together only makes the relationship stronger. We can all take that lesson from the pair, right?
References:
https://www.gq.com/story/billy-ray-cyrus-mr-hannah-montana-miley?currentPage=4
https://www.goalcast.com/2020/07/22/miley-cyrus-billy-ray-cyrus-repaired-relationship/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/miley-cyrus-confessions-of-pops-wildest-child-115353/
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/19/showbiz/billy-ray-cyrus-interview/index.html
