Miley Cyrus has had her ups and downs with dad Billy Ray Cyrus, but when they were on the Hannah Montana set, she knew he had her back.
Miley, 33, recalled during an interview with Variety published on Wednesday, March 18, that while some child stars allegedly faced abuse by producers or adults on set, Billy Ray, 64, protected her by just showing up.
“My parents didn’t need me to be famous to survive or to be stable,” Miley said, noting that her dad was already a famous country singer when he booked the role of her TV dad, Robby Stewart, in 2006. “What happens to a lot of these kids is their parents want it more than they do, or the kids become responsible for the entire income of the family.”
Miley noted, “That was never my job. Every penny I ever made went into my bank account because my parents were good.” (Miley played both Miley Stewart and her popstar alter ego, Hannah Montana, on the Disney Channel series from 2006 to 2011.)
In addition to not feeling like she had to earn money to keep her family afloat, Miley said she was able to escape the darker side of child acting because she was never without a guardian while filming.
“My dad was on set every single day, so there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn’t know about,” Miley said. “There was never a time where I was going to be alone in that dressing room.”
The “Wrecking Ball” singer noted that throughout the Disney Channel series’ five-year run, Billy Ray’s dressing room was connected to hers. Between them there was a kitchen-turned-office where Miley’s grandmother Loretta “Mammie” Finley managed her fan club and had an extra set of eyes on her.
In addition to watching over her, Miley said her real-life dad playing her TV father made her job even easier.
“My dad always says, ‘When you knock ’em out, you don’t need a judge.’ We knocked ’em out,” Miley remembered of their auditions. “It was so obvious, after all the other dads, that you can’t fake the kind of connection that we have. The inside jokes, the nicknames, the handshakes, singing the songs together. It was a TKO.”
More than a decade after Hannah Montana came to an end in 2011, Billy Ray’s relationship with Miley’s mother, Tish Cyrus, also petered out.
Billy Ray — who also shares son Braison, 31, and daughter Noah, 26, with Tish and is the adoptive father of her two eldest children, Brandi, 38, and Trace, 37 — divorced Tish in spring 2022. Billy Ray is also the father of son Christopher, 33, whom he shares with ex Kristen Luckey.
In the wake of her parents’ split, Miley didn’t speak with Billy Ray for two years amid family tension. (Miley was, however, the maid of honor at Tish’s 2023 wedding to Dominic Purcell.)
Last year, Miley and Billy Ray’s road to reconciliation began when Miley wrote a song called “Secrets” in honor of her father. It was a peace offering track that featured Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, because according to Miley, Fleetwood Mac is her dad’s favorite band.
“Call off all your forces / A white flag in the war,” Miley sings in the chorus, signifying the fact that she wanted to make amends.
Billy Ray revealed in 2025 that he cried when he heard it. “One great song can do more for the soul than a million therapy sessions,” he wrote via Instagram after taking a listen.
The song worked as fans will see Miley reunite with Billy Ray — and share a sweet hug in their Stewart family kitchen — on Disney+’s Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special, premiering on Tuesday, March 24.
“I used to think of Hannah as something separate from myself,” Miley told Variety. “This special is my reclaiming of merging Hannah and Miley together.”
