Miley Cyrus’ “Used to be Young” TikTok series has finally reached the topic of her and ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s 10-year relationship. Cyrus spoke about first meeting Hemsworth when the crew was auditioning male leads for The Last Song, which was ultimately released in 2010.
Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus at The Last Song premiere in March 2010.
“In 2008, I needed to do another feature film for Disney, and I didn’t want it to be a part of Hannah Montana,” she said. “Once we had written the screenplay, it was time to audition all the guys who would play Will, my boyfriend in the movie. We had gotten it down from thousands to the final three, and Liam was a part of that final three.”
“I think one of the elements that made that movie feel so special was it was watching two very young people fall in love with each other, which was happening in real time and in real life, so the chemistry was undeniable,” she said. “And that was the beginning of a long 10-year relationship.”
Cyrus and Hemsworth initially dated from 2009 to 2013, and got engaged, too. They broke up and ultimately got back together in 2016. They got married in December 2018 after losing their Malibu home in the Woolsey Fire.
Less than a year later, Cyrus’ rep announced the couple’s breakup in August 2019. Cyrus later reflected on their divorce, finalized in January 2020, during a December 2020 interview with Howard Stern.
“We were together since 16,” Cyrus began. “Our house burned down. We had been like, engaged—I don’t know if we really ever thought we were actually going to get married, but when we lost our house in Malibu—which if you listen to my voice pre- and post-fire, they’re very different so that trauma really affected my voice. And I was actually in South Africa, so I couldn’t come home, and like, my animals were tied to a post at the beach. I lost everything. I had polaroids of Elvis, like front row, passed on from—I got a couple grandmas to give me their Elvis polaroids. I always became friends with my friends’ grandmas so I could get the goods from the artists I love.”
“I had so much and it was all gone, every song I had ever written was in that house. Every photograph of me that my parents had given to me, all my scripts, I lost everything. And so in trying to put that back together, instead of going, ‘Oh, nature kind of did something I couldn’t do for myself; it forced me to let go,’ I ran toward the fire. Which is not abnormal, a lot of animals do this and end up dying, like deers run into the forest. You’re attracted to that heat and me being an intense person and not wanting to sit with it, and not wanting to go, you know, ‘What could be purposeful about this?’ I just clung to what I had left of that house, which was me and him. And I really do and did love him very, very, very much and still do, always will.”
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Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.