Topics: Miley Cyrus, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships, Mental Health
In a newly-released interview, Tish Cyrus had sensationally lifted the lid on her 2022 divorce from country star ex-husband Billy Ray Cyrus.
The 56-year-old's bombshell admission comes just days after the pair's singer-songwriter daughter Miley appeared to 'snub' her father following her double-whammy Grammys win at the weekend.
Appearing on stage to collect her awards, the 'Flowers' hitmaker failed to mention her once-beloved father, 62 - who she previously starred alongside in Hannah Montana - despite giving shout-outs to her 'mommy', sister Brandi and her 'love' Maxx Morando.
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Miley, 31, went on to upload a post-win Instagram snap from the star-studded ceremony, once again thanking all of her biggest supporters for their love whilst pointedly neglecting her 'Achy Breaky Heart' star father.
Since then, rumours have been swirling that the lack of Billy Ray mentions was completely intentional, following speculation that the father-daughter duo are no longer on speaking terms.
Miley unfollowed her father on social media last year amid talk that his recent remarriage to fellow musician Firerose - who is 27 years his junior and only three years older than his daughter - hadn't gone down well.
Alternatively, Miley is said to be in full support of mum Tish's new relationship with Australian actor beau Dominic Purcell.
Now, Tish herself has set the record straight about how her split from long-term husband Billy Ray had affected both herself and her family, admitting the divorce had sadly been on the cards for several years.
Appearing on the much-loved Call Her Daddy podcast this week, she revealed that the couple had endured the roughest patch during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Explaining that then-husband Billy Ray had opted to travel to Tennessee during lockdown instead of remaining in California where she and daughter Miley lived, Tish admitted: "During that period, I took a really good, hard look at life, my life, and like, 'What was I gonna do?'
"Because it had not been in a good place for a long time. And I think I did stay so long out of fear of being alone. Like I had met him when I was 23, 24."
During this period, the mother-of-five also lost her mum, something that she claims - paired with her relationship falling apart - sent her into a month long 'psychological breakdown'.
"It was the worst thing, it was not good... Kind of pushed the mom thing under the rug, and then the divorce thing came," Tish opened up.
"I could not eat, I could not sleep, I could not stop crying. I don't have my mom, and then I don't have my husband that has been my husband for 30 years.
"Like I'm scared."
Despite the emotional turbulence of this period of her life, Tish claimed the pandemic actually gave her the strength to leave her husband - from whom she'd temporarily split from numerous times in the past.
"So being alone, and all of a sudden just having kind of the weight of the world off my shoulders, and I was able to just breathe," she explained.
"And smoke pot and garden, and go skinny dipping in my pool. That's what I did during Covid. It was hugely transformative."
