Billy Ray Cyrus: Hannah Montana “destroyed my family”
By Alexandra Heilbron on February 16, 2011 | 15 Comments
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.”
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Be careful what you wish for I say. They work hard for fame and fortune and then they’re all saying ” I don’t have a life, I don’t have privacy, I don’t have a good family life”. It’s your fault Billy, you threw her in stardom and then she’s not there for him anymore. Especially late teens, you know how bad it is in a normal family setting, imagine when they have a fortune of their own. It’s all things he could have seen coming.
@ Germain :: I guess you missed the part where he blamed himself.
I feel for the guy. He wanted to help her do what she wanted, which was to have a career. But he didn’t realize that fame robs you of your child. A kid who’s making as much if not more than you has power that other kids don’t. They no longer have to listen to their parents, and often, don’t even respect them. But it’s sickening that she’s best buds with the philandering mother instead of supporting her dad, who sacrificed so she could be famous.
I love how this fool’s twisting the story. He ONLY made $12,000 per episode… hmmm, at 98 episodes that comes out to $1.2million dollars. That somewhat contradicts his previous claims he never made a dime off his daughter.
Than he claims he didn’t have access to his daughter — even though he starred along side her in 98 of the 99 episodes — which gave him plenty opportunity to intervene
You have to ask yourself, when did Hanna Montana ruin his family exactly? When he was knowingly pimping his daughter for millions or when the series ended along with its plump cashflow. I have no pity for this guy or his family. He was a poor father, and now he’s just a guy full of selfish excuses.
His career would be in the toilet if it wasn’t for her
1.2 million?! What planet do you live on…after taxes, 53%, 11% to agent, 12.3% to manager and every other incidental he would be lucky to pocket $300,000. That may seem a lot but do you have any idea the hours and hard work and repetition and hurry up and wait crap that happens every day? I would not do it for 500 times that amount. Ya..he F’d up but coulda, woulda, shoulda does nothing now…just be there when she needs ya and talk about it as much as you can…it may save one other parent from making the same mistake…be careful what you wish for…you may get it and then you are screwed.
I have to say I agree more with ‘Nobody Important’ then ‘Age A’. Although I do agree he would have only walked away with perhaps 400 or so thousand dollars. He was still around his daughter ALL THE TIME. If as a father he was that concerned about what was happening he could have stepped in and acted as the father figure far earlier on.
Grasping at straws not looking at reality….GAH!
Billy, thanks for stepping up. Hopefully other parents of potential starlets will listen to you.
nobody important on February 17, 2011 9:31 AM the only reason MILEY got the part was because billy agreed to act as her father on the show, therefore HE wasnt making money off of miley, SHE was making money off of him.
there is no way he could have saw any of this coming, he probably thought it was a good idea at the time and that she would adjust to it and he would still be able to be her father. as children become teens and young adults, they definitely change who they are and stop listening to their parents and start living their own lives, this was going to happened eventually, it seems he just isnt prepared to let go of his baby girl. i feel bad for him.
@mandee ,i totally agree with you ..as a mom of 2 grown daughters ,i had a great loving relationship with them and they respected me so much as their mom ..then the teenage years came and went . i called it ,`i wish i was in a coma for 5 years`, period. So my oldest put us all through hell ,and im not the mom she could step on either .she`d call me judge Judy ,lol! but i did what i could and then the rest is, as they say , not history .. where im going with this, is a teenager is a teenager ..they`re gonna be crazy times ,and all we can do is the best we know how to prepare them for the world ahead of them . the attitude changes as they grow and learn life`s difficult path. also, that the world does not revolve around them .. Billy has nothing to be guilty about .i remember when he was on the glenn beck show saying he wasn’t the one who disciplined his daughter ,that her mom was .isn’t it like that in most cases ? I know how he feels . but one thing he doesn’t know yet is that the guilt trip never stops .. we as parents always wonder if we should had done this, that and even more. hoped we were there whenever they needed us .although work would sometimes be in the way for us to always be . but teenagers only remember what they chose to remember . Its an excuse to be rebellious… oups sorry ,well i did ,lol.. I pray that they come together again soon 🙂
“there is no way he could have saw any of this coming, he probably thought it was a good idea at the time and that she would adjust to it and he would still be able to be her father” – mandee
He never saw it coming? Are you kidding me? Did you forget his meteoric demise after “Achy Breaky Heart”? He was fully aware of fame’s pitfalls, yet he chose to ignore them with regards to his daughter’s career.
Again, I have no pity for these people.
I wish the whole family the best.
I think Billy Ray, really thought that this was the best for Miley and his family,
That “Tish:, decided to open her legs? Well, that says alot for her character.
B.R. should havae been more careful about his daughter, but it really does at this point, rest on his now adult daughter. Be careful girl, many girls are still watching you!
I’ve been cheated on, and so now has he. It feels like hell.
I don’t have much for my kids, and probably never will. At least he’ll always be able to have an income, either threw his music or his reruns.
Good luck billy.
Maybe she should have invented an Alter Ego of sorts and make a career as a signer with this character and be icognito during the day as Miley Cyrus. Just a wig would have done it. 🙂
linda on February 17, 2011 5:59 PM 🙂 thanks, and im really not looking forward to having kids of my own !! lol. i dont want them to grow up and not listen to me and be their own person! lol 😛
I do not suffer fools wisely.
Sara, shut up.
“Billy, thanks for stepping up.” Just bc he tells a reporter something sympathetic and gets a press release making him look like a victim and a hero, he still has not contacted his daughter except through text which is still unclear if he did. Miley is ignorant but not dumb. She sees he went to the press first like Lindsay Lohan’s dad. Both father’s look like publicity man-whores crying wolf against everyone and everything but do nothing in making amends with their daughters. Thanks for stepping up Billy, thanks for shutting the hell up Sara.
Mandee; you are still dumber than a dog’s dinner. quote from you. “there is no way he could have saw any of this coming.” The show was on for 5 years and Billy never saw it coming? That is half a decade. That’s more than enough time to see things go from bad to worse to full blown disaster.
Quote, from you. “he would still be able to be her father.” He states in the interview, I know this bc I read it above, that he was never her father but a friend so why would you say that. Let the words of his text speak for themselves instead of interpreting them in your biased warped mind set and then write stupid comments confirming the aforementioned “dumber than a dog’s dinner comment. I do not suffer fools wisely.