This week, an old clip of Miley Cyrus appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast to promote her album Plastic Hearts resurfaced, and her sister Noah shared her thoughts on the interview, commenting “the disrespect in this video” under the resurfaced clip from September 2020. While people are unclear on whether she’s suggesting the disrespect is coming from Joe or Miley, it’s safe to assume that with all the family drama going on in the background, it’s aimed at her sister.
Last month, when Tish Cyrus married Prison Break star Dominic Purcell, Noah and her brother Braison were not in attendance, while Miley appeared as a bridesmaid. And this past weekend, Billy Ray Cyrus married Firerose, though it hasn’t been confirmed whether any of his kids were at the wedding.
Tish and Billy Ray’s divorce was a long-time coming. The pair had previously filed for divorce in 2010, but withdrew it shortly after. Then, Tish filed for divorce again in 2013, but withdrew the petition five months later after attending couples therapy. But finally, in April 2022, they released a statement to PEOPLE confirming their divorce.
"It is after 30 years, five amazing children and a lifetime of memories, we have decided to go our separate ways — not with sadness, but with love in our hearts. We have grown up together, raised a family we can be so proud of, and it is now time to create our own paths," their statement at the time read. "We will always be family and look forward to a continued and loving shared experience as friends and parents. We have not come to this decision lightly or quickly but with so much going on in the world, we wanted to provide some clarity and closure, so we can remain focused on what is important," it concluded.
Since then, though, there have been a few eyebrow-raising moves made by members of the family that gives the impression that they will not all be sharing in the “loving shared experience” they touted in their statement.
Immediately following the split, fans noticed Noah had unfollowed and blocked her mom on Instagram, calling attention to the fact that her handle tags on old photos of the two had been removed, which is what happens when someone has been blocked.
It appeared that the dust had settled a few months later, when fans noticed Noah was following Tish again, and that Tish was sharing photos of her daughter while she was in Paris. But on the very day that Tish and Dominic married, Noah and her brother Braison spent time at a Wal-Mart instead, while Noah donned a t-shirt with her dad’s face on it. Ouch.
So it’s safe to say that though the current issue over this old video clip may appear to be about Miley shading Noah’s music, it runs a lot deeper than that. And I could be reading too deeply into this, but with these issues we’re seeing that surfaced three years after this interview, it seems like the seeds for the division were planted long ago.
In the clip, Miley starts off by professing her love for Noah’s EP, before calling it “the most depressing EP you’ll ever listen to,” before adding that her sister is “emo”. Joe suggests it’s because Noah has grown up in Miley’s shadow, to which she agrees, before reciting a line from one of Noah’s songs that refers to Miley as a ray of sunshine and herself as more of a raincloud.
Growing up as the youngest of a blended family of five girls, I’m no stranger to sh-t-talking or being sh-t-talked by my siblings. And if Miley was saying these things to Noah, I think it would’ve meant something entirely different. But talking about your sister, your younger sister at that, in this way, on a podcast is a little more sinister. And as media outlets point out, it’s either that Noah didn’t see the clip when it originally surfaced or, she’s looking to stir up some drama by reigniting the fire three years later. In any event, Noah isn’t wrong in saying Miley’s remarks were disrespectful.
Miley is able to identify all the different dynamics at play that would make seeing or hearing something like this painful for Noah. First, as Miley points out, Noah is emo, or at least was at that time. So she’s aware that her sister is highly emotional and uses those emotions as inspiration for her music. Calling the end result of a production inspired by your feelings "depressing" must feel so insulting.
Second, she points out that at the time this EP was released, Noah was 20. Despite growing up in a musical family, putting your own music out there, especially when it’s so different from the kind of music your dad and sister put out, is no small feat. I’d argue that it’s more difficult to release music from a musical family than a non-musical one because there’s pre-existing expectations on what you’ll sound like and she’s really going against the grain here.
But most of all, she’s pointing out that Noah views her as a ray of sunshine, while she considers herself a raincloud. Whether it was for the sake of lyrics or not, there is likely a lot of truth in the idea that she’s grown up in her sister’s shadow. So to hear your big sister, whose shadow you grew up in and who you probably idolize or at least look up to in some way, make these comments is especially hurtful.
The thing about Miley is that she got to play around with a swath of different sounds. She’s done country, she did pop, she even did the rap thing for a while. And though I’m not sure what I would call some of her latest music, why can Noah not play around with different sounds, too? Without being called out about it?
I don’t doubt she was just trying to speak frankly about her sister’s music, but I do think that with everything going on with the family right now, the remarks didn’t age well. Not that she’d have a crystal ball (though she may have a wrecking one), she could’ve and should’ve been more considerate about what the implications of that might be. Would someone actually want to go and listen to something you’ve just described as “the most depressing EP you’ll ever listen to?”
This is likely an issue of kids siding with their favourite parent in a divorce. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before in our own families and in other famous ones. In this way, celebrities really are human. Perhaps they don’t like their new step-parents, I totally understand. And while I don’t know what it’s like to be a big sister, I know what it’s like to be a little one. And I also know how easy divorces, separations and breakups can ruin things, particularly in a place like Hollywood, when people notice that you’re no longer following or have blocked your mom, I doubt it’s any easier.
So my hope for these sisters, Braison, and even Billy Ray and Tish, is that they can cut through the noise and find healing, no matter which side of the fence they’re on when it comes to this new phase they’re all in, and that they can all get back on the same page and get to the promised land of “loving shared experiences” like they intended.
Attached - Miley attending a concert last night in LA with boyfriend Maxx Morando.
