Tish Cryus “took a really good hard look” at her life in 2022 before filing for divorce from Billy Ray Cyrus.
“It had not been in a good place for a long time. I think I did stay so long out of fear. Literal fear of being alone,” Tish, 56, admitted during the Wednesday, February 7, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I met him when I [was] 24. So I, like, grew up … [and] he was such a huge part of that. Then being alone and all of a sudden just having kind of the weight of the world off my shoulders in some ways and [I] was able to just breathe.”
Before the pair’s divorce, Billy Ray, 62, moved to Tennessee for two years during the Covid pandemic while Tish stayed in Los Angeles with daughters Miley and Noah Cyrus. Tish admitted that being alone during that time was “hugely transformative.”
Tish and Billy Ray experienced plenty of ups and downs after tying the knot in 1993. Billy Ray first filed for divorce in 2010, but the twosome quickly reconciled. When Tish later filed for divorce in 2013, they again tried to make things work. She filed the divorce paperwork for the final time in 2022. (Tish has since married Dominic Purcell while Billy Ray moved on with Firerose, who is 27 years his junior.)
Tish seemingly threw shade at Billy Ray when she said that she only knew what “love was” from her parents. “I never ever saw them disrespect one another ever,” implying something different in her past marriage. Now, “there’s not one second” that Tish does not feel loved by her new man.
Tish was alone when she dealt with the death of her mom, Loretta Finley, in August 2020 on top of coping with her divorce.
“I had, like, one month of a — honestly — complete psychological breakdown. It was the worst thing. Honestly … it was not good,” Tish told “Call Her Daddy” host Alexandra Cooper. “I could not eat. I could not sleep. I could not stop crying. I literally weighed, like, 103 lbs. … I don’t have my mom and then I don’t have my husband [who’s] been my husband for 30 years.”
While Tish wishes she “walked away” from the marriage sooner, she still isn’t sure whether that would have been the right decision overall.
Keep reading for more revelations about Tish’s relationship with Billy Ray:
When the Marriage Ended
Tish Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus. VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
“When it actually fell apart is when I stopped [changing myself]. When I stopped doing that, it was over,” Tish admitted. “[I was] looking at myself being like, ‘What in the heck are you doing?’ So I literally just had made that firm decision, and I was like, ‘I’m moving on with my life.’ You know what, girl? It worked out for the best.”
The Differences Between Her 2 Marriages
Tish claimed she put up with “disrespect in every form” in her marriage to Billy Ray, which is something she’s not experiencing now.
“Disrespect just lays it out in so many ways. I [didn’t] even know — until I had a new relationship [where] there was so much respect — how much disrespect there was in my marriage before,” Tish continued. “Honestly, on both our parts.”
Being a Mom of 5
Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus, Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Braison Cyrus, Trace Cyrus, Brandi Cyrus and Tish Cyrus. Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio/Wireimage
Tish and Billy Ray share five kids: Brandi, 36, Trace, 34, Miley, 31, Braison, 29, and Noah, 24.
Tish referred to herself as “a single parent” during her childrens’ early years because she was raising them while Billy Ray was on Hannah Montana with Miley.
“I literally had the choice to leave them with a nanny and let them go to school or take them with me and have them do it on [set]. Which is what I chose to do,” she added. “It was not easy. … I just made it work and I took the kids.”
The Relationship From Brandi’s Perspective
Brandi joined her mom on “Call Her Daddy” and weighed on how her parents’ relationship changed over the years.
Initially, the couple were “so touchy and so lovey,” but Brandi started to notice changes when she was in her 20s.
“I’ll never forget, I was 25 and I was filming a movie in New York and he was there doing Broadway. It was, kind of, the first time that it opened my eyes to see some of the things that he was doing that I didn’t know before,” Brandi recalled without specifying what was going on behind the scenes in the pair’s marriage. “It was hurtful to see him doing it to her. It was hurtful to see him hiding it from me.”
Brandi later clarified, “I never first-hand saw anything go down, by any means. But [I] tried to be a peacemaker.”
The ‘Hannah Montana’ of It All
Both Tish and Brandi addressed Billy Ray’s past comments from a 2011 GQ interview in which he claimed Hannah Montana “destroyed” their family. Neither of the women felt the same way.
“The family’s not destroyed, first of all,” Brandi insisted. “We’re doing great.”