Tish Cyrus Reveals What Led to Her Divorce From Billy Ray: ‘Complete Psychological Breakdown’

Tish Cyrus ​has revealed the reason she and Billy Ray Cyrus divorced after their marriage “fell apart” for the final time.

The combination of her mother’s death in August 2020 and being apart from Billy Ray, 62, during the COVID-19 pandemic caused Tish, 56, to reevaluate her life after having a mental health crisis about being on her own.

“It was so crazy because, honestly, my two biggest fears in life were always being alone and my mom passing away,” Tish told Alex Cooper on the Tuesday, February 6, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. She spent the COVID-19 lockdown in California while Billy Ray remained in Tennessee.

“I was like, ‘I just don’t know if I’ll survive when my mom dies.’ Like, honestly. And I had, like, one month of a, honestly, complete psychological breakdown. It was the worst thing — like, honestly. It was not good,” she explained, ​adding that she even asked to be put in a mental hospital, although her psychiatrist didn’t think that was the “best thing” for her.

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“I could not eat. I could not sleep. I could not stop crying. I literally weighed, like, 130 [pounds]. I don’t have my mom, and then I don’t have my husband that’s been my husband for 30 years. Like, holy crap, I’m scared,” she told Alex.

“During that period, I took a really good, hard look at life, my life, and like, ‘What was I gonna do?'” Tish said of her time away from the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer. “Because it had not been in a good place for a long time. And I think I did stay so long out of fear of being alone. Like I had met him when I was 23, 24.”

She continued, “So being alone, and all of a sudden just having kind of the weight of the world off my shoulders, and I was able to just breathe. And smoke pot and garden and go skinny dipping in my pool. That’s what I did during ​COVID. It was hugely transformative.”

Tish ultimately filed for divorce in April 2022 after 28 years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences.”

The former couple had split several times in the past but ultimately reconciled. Billy Ray filed for divorce in 2010 but later withdrew his petition. Tish did the same in 2013 but the pair ended up going to couples therapy to save their marriage.

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When Alex asked if Tish wished she’d left Billy Ray during their ​past tumultuous period, she revealed, “I really didn’t want [daughter] Noah Cyrus to still be young, but looking back on it, it would have been much better for her had I left.”

Tish married former Prison Break star Dominic Purcell in a romantic Malibu wedding on August 19, 2023. Less than two months later, Billy Ray tied the knot with singer Firerose on October 10, 2023.

The weddings seemed to cause a divide among the former couple’s children. Daughters Miley, Brandi and son Trace attended Tish’s wedding but skipped their dad’s, while Noah and brother ​Braison attended Billy Ray’s nuptials.