Firerose Would Tell Her 22-Year-Old Self to 'Run in the Opposite Direction' from Billy Ray Cyrus Following Their Divorce

Mar. 15, 2025

Firerose and Billy Ray Cyrus in January 2024.Photo:AFF-USA/Shutterstock

AFF-USA/Shutterstock

IfFirerosecould give her younger self advice, she would tell her to run fromBilly Ray Cyrusthe very first time they met.

The Sydney-born singer, 36, opened up about her relationship with her 63-year-old ex-husband in an exclusive new interview withStellarmagazine, published on Saturday, Oct. 12. The two met in 2010 before they eventuallysplitin May 2024 andfinalized their divorcein August.

According to Firerose, her path first crossed with theHannah Montanaalum when his dog came up to her on the studio lot whereHannah Montanawas filmed. She was 22 at the time. Cyrus was 48.

She told the Australian magazine that Cyrus, who was married to longtime wifeTishat the time — though hefiled for divorce from her the following year before eventually calling it off— told her, “I’ll just introduce you to everyone else and we can hang out for the rest of the day.”

“My gut instinct, honestly, was: What does this guy want?” she recalled. “I probably should have had way better boundaries.”

Firerose and Billy Ray Cyrus in August 2023.Jason Kempin/Getty

Jason Kempin/Getty

“When I think about what I just went through, I would have told my 22-year-old self to run in the opposite direction and never look back,” Firerose toldStellar.

Firerose claimed that Cyrus lovebombed her, making promises he never kept. “He’d say bizarre things like, ‘We’re going to have this epic love story beyond anything you can imagine. We’re going to have twins, and call them Melody and Harmony.’ ”

He also isolated her from her friends and family, starting with theirOctober 2023 wedding, in which she had only one guest. “I was allowed to have her over because she was doing my hair.It was quite hurtful, in retrospect, and it breaks my heart,” she told the magazine. “How did I not think that that was so weird and unacceptable? I justified it like, well, that’s my life now. I accepted his lunacy as reality.”

This “lunacy,” Firerose toldStellar, lasted long beyond their nuptials. “All of a sudden, instead of being my normal lively, outgoing self, I became very introverted unless we were working or together in public, where I’d often try to be overly positive as I was scared to let anyone see how devastatingly withdrawn I’d become,”  she recalled.

“My family and friends all had the same experience: me withdrawing and pushing them away," she continued. “The way I experienced it was: ‘Oh, he’s just really protective.’ ”

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose.Firerose/ Instagram

Firerose/ Instagram

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

To keep her at home, Firerose claimed the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer would say things like, “Well, you can’t live that way anymore. You’re a Cyrus now. You can’t be going to church. You can’t be going to public places where people could follow you home. You’re going to be murdered.’ ”

“It sounds crazy, but that’s what was happening,” she said. “By the point where I realised it was too late, what was even worse was he blamed me somehow for everything that had previously gone wrong in his life.”

“For someone who’s had so many good things happen to him, and so much luck and so many blessings, to be that empty is really sad,” the singer added of her ex-husband. “And I thought, I’m just going to keep loving him, pouring my heart and soul into this relationship.”

Firerose wants to share her story to show people that what she went through is “much more common, unfortunately, than anyone would like to think,” she toldStellar. “I had to learn that it was something outside of me, something that I couldn’t fix.”

“All I ever tried to do was love and trust this person,” the musician said of Cyrus, “which was very ignorant of me.”

“I really wanted to believe that he was the good version of the man I’d fallen in love with,” she added.

A rep for Cyrus did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

source: people.com