A lot happened over Easter weekend. Not only was there, you know, the Pope dying, but mixed in with all the headlines was the fact that Elizabeth Hurley made her new relationship Instagram-official.
The pictures, which were posted to her account, showed the actor cosying up with none other than singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Aka the father of Miley, and a country music superstar who’s been around since the 90s.
The Cyrus family is an odd one: full of quarrelling family members, Disney Channel stars and lots of musicians. Here’s what we know about Billy – and the rest of them too.
Billy Ray Cyrus
Born in 1962, Billy Ray has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles over the course of his career – the biggest of which is probably Achy Breaky Heart. You know it, it’s a karaoke classic – and it also became the first-ever single to reach triple platinum status in America (as well as being credited with boosting the popularity of the line dance).
He married Tish Cyrus in 1993 after the pair met in a club two years earlier. Billy Ray adopted her two children, Brandi and Trace, and they went onto have three more: Miley, Braison and Noah.
Though he had a thriving music career, what really boosted his profile was when he was cast as the on-screen dad for his actual daughter, Miley, on the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana. This was in 2006, and endeared him to millions of viewers as a good natured ‘Disney dad’.
In 2022 (after a rocky decade, where they nearly divorced twice), Billy Ray also split from his wife, Tish, citing "irreconcilable differences."
More recently, he’s been in the news for performing at Donald Trump’s Liberty Ball inauguration.
This didn’t go well: he had technical issues with his microphone, and performed his and Lil Nas X’s 2019 song Old Town Road by singing along very quietly – before skipping around the stage in silence, asking the crowd to join in.
This last decision sparked a message from none other than his son Trace, who took to Instagram to tell him that “it seems this world has beaten you down and it’s become obvious to everyone but you.”
"Me and the girls have been genuinely worried about you for years but you’ve pushed all of us away ... We are all hanging on to memories of the man we once knew & hoping for the day he returns."
Though Billy Ray didn’t reply directly, a few days later he did share some footage from his 2009 track Somebody Said A Prayer (which stars Trace in the music video), along with the caption: "Giving thanks for the California Rain. Praying for the brokenhearted and their pain. Praying for my family. For my children … sons and daughters…and their mother.”
Firerose
After the split, Billy Ray had a whirlwind romance with Firerose, an Australian singer (real name Johanna Rose Hodges), and the pair got engaged in August 2022.
They separated in May 2024, seven months after their marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. In June, Billy Ray filed a temporary restraining order to prevent “unauthorised” use of his personal and business credit cards and accounts; days later, she filed her own, accusing Billy Ray of “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse” as well as substance abuse issues.
In August, they reached a settlement, but Firerose spoke out again after his inauguration performance, telling People magazine that his behaviour "reflects much of what I experienced in private during our relationship."
"It’s very sad to see those same struggles continue for him, but I’m glad the truth is coming to light — for his potential good because healing is only possible when you confront the truth and accept there’s a problem.”
Tish Cyrus
Born in 1967, Tish has managed her two daughters – Miley and Noah – since the start of their music careers. She got together with Billy Ray in 1991, and had their daughter, Miley, in 1992, before the pair married in 1993.
"1992 was one of the hardest years of my life just because of that change,” she later said. “He was playing to 50, 60, 100,000 people, you know? And there was just women everywhere.”
When the pair split in 2022, it looks like it might have gotten messy. During a 2024 appearance on Call Her Daddy, she explained that their relationship “had not been in a good place for a long time."
She went onto add that she’d stayed with Billy Ray because of the “fear of being alone”, and a period of separation during the Covid pandemic let her “just breathe.”
Alex Cooper, the podcast’s host, asked her if she wished she’d left the marriage earlier – when the first divorce proceedings began in 2010 and 2013 – and Tish said she did, but wanted to protect her daughter, Noah.
"Looking back on it, it would have been better for her had I left," she added. "It would have been much better."
She’s moved on, though: in August 2023, she married Australian actor Dominic Purcell, with Miley as maid of honour.
The children
As you might expect from a family with many children, there’s a lot of different opinions about Billy Ray Cyrus. After rumours of a rift in their past, singer Miley has stayed out of the recent drama, and has diplomatically paid tribute to her father – most especially in a June 2024 podcast appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
"He's almost like given me this map," she said of her relationship with him. "There's a map of what to do and what not to do, and he's guided me on both."
Though her mother mainly raised her, she said, Billy Ray also had a big influence. "Without my dad... who I am as a person wouldn't exist,” she added.
However, her other siblings might not agree. In his Instagram post, Trace accused Billy Ray of being an absentee father. "Noah desperately has wanted you to be a part of her life and you haven’t even been there for her," he wrote.
"That’s your baby girl. She deserves better. Somehow just like me she still idolizes you though."
Billy Ray’s relationship with his other son Braison (also a country singer) also seems to be going strong: he joined Braison on stage for his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in July 2024 and said he had “never been more proud.”
The pair also announced in January that they would be collaborating on a new album: in a statement, he added that “This is art imitating life, imitating art… Braison is very talented and ‘25 is his year. I’m glad to be a part of it. This record is gonna be special. I’m gearing up for what will be the journey of a lifetime.”
Braison added that "I’ve spent this past year getting to know my dad better than I ever have. I’ve heard stories, jokes and songs that I don’t think anyone else has. It’s an opportunity to tell my dad’s story through music and I’m fortunate to be able to take it."
