Billy Ray Cyrus: Hannah Montana “destroyed my family”

In the March issue of GQ magazine, Billy Ray Cyrus admitted that his decision to let his daughter Miley star in the Disney series Hannah Montana was one that eventually destroyed his family. He says it changed his relationship with Miley. “The business was driving a wedge between us,” he admits. Never a disciplinarian, he was happy to be a friend to his daughter, though other parents would tell him, “She needs you to be a parent, not a friend.” He agrees: “I’m the first guy to say to them right now: You were right. I should have been a better parent. I should have said, ‘Enough is enough—it’s getting dangerous and somebody’s going to get hurt’.” Cyrus says he’s had no say over anything in Miley’s life for several years — that her “handlers” took over, including letting her do the Vanity Fair photo shoot half naked. “See,” he explains, “I’ve not been able to have a voice… She’s got a lot of people around her that’s putting her in a great deal of danger.” However, he says he hasn’t given up. “I feel like I got to try. It’s my daughter. And some of these handlers are perhaps more interested in handling Miley’s money than her safety and her career.”

When Miley was 11, Billy Ray helped her audition for Hannah Montana, playing guitar while she sang. Part of the reason she was chosen was because he agreed to play her father, even though his salary was low ($12,000 per episode), considering the success of the show. Although people assume he’s Miley’s manager (on the show he played her father/manager), he wants people to know: “I’m proud to say to this day I’ve never made one commissioned dollar, or dime, off of my daughter.”‘ Currently, Billy Ray is living in the Tennessee home he bought many years ago, where Miley lived before Hannah Montana. He doesn’t mention in the interview that his estranged wife, Tish, who cheated on him last year, is currently one of Miley’s “circle,” and is acting as a producer on her new film. He says he’s there for Miley if she needs him. “You know, it seems at this point there’s not a lot that I can say she doesn’t already know. And of course I’ve sent her the texts of ‘I’m here if you need me,’ ‘Always still love you,’ those kind of things….Hopefully there’s something I can do.” When asked if he wished Hannah Montana had never happened, he gives a very definite response: “I hate to say it, but yes, I do. Yeah. I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could… I’ll tell you right now—the damn show destroyed my family.”