During a sit-down with David Letterman, the 'Flowers' hitmaker also emphasized that Billy and her mom Tish Cyrus 'can't be weighed on the same scale' when it comes to which of her parents had a greater impact on her life.
- Jun 13, 2024
AceShowbiz - Miley Cyrus might have a complicated relationship with her father Billy Ray Cyrus, but she refused to use the word estrangement to describe it. The "Flowers" hitmaker opened up about her family when appearing on "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman".
During the sit-down, the 31-year-old revealed traits she inherited from her parents. While admitting that she got "the narcissim" from her dad, the Grammy winner also revealed some of his positive qualities.
"Honestly, my mom is my hero. And, uh, my father... I'm grateful for - first his genes," she said. "My dad has great hair, and I got that. But he also - he has a relationship and a foot on the ground to like 'the real' and to nature. And he always did, even when he was super famous. I'm grateful for being able to watch him ahead of me."
"He's almost like, given me this map, and there is a map of what to do and what not to do… He's guided me on both," she added. "And I do think - him and I - we have really different upbringings. The way that my dad was raised, he grew up very poor in a very small town. His parents were divorced when he was very young."
Miley went on to explain, "My dad had a pretty rough childhood, and my childhood… I had food. I had love. I grew up in a beautiful big house, and my dad didn't have that." She then detailed, "And so I have a lot of empathy and compassion for his childhood, which obviously developed to create the man he is now, that I have a lot of love for."
The "Hannah Montana" alum also emphasized that Billy and her mom Tish Cyrus "can't be weighed on the same scale" when it comes to which of her parents had a greater impact on her life. "Without my dad, I know, I mean not just literally, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair," she first stated.
"I wouldn't exist, but I would not, who I am as a person, it wouldn't exist because my dad as a creative and like as an artist in the way that his brain works has always made me feel safer in my own mind because we're very similar in some of our ideas," she continued. "His perspective on reality and life I've inherited from him more so than the way that I was raised. Which, really, my mom raised me."
"The capacity in which my mom was raised by a completely intact, beautiful family. Actually, my mom was adopted, so my mom was chosen," Miley told David Letterman. "My mom came into this world being wanted and being loved and being given the most beautiful life… My dad didn't have that."
