Aussie singer Firerose’s explosive new claims about Billy Ray Cyrus split

Singer Firerose shared bombshell new claims about her seven-month marriage to Billy Ray Cyrus – including his shock wedding day rule.

Australian singer Firerose has claimed she was forbidden from inviting any guests to her own wedding by her now ex-husband, Billy Ray Cyrus, describing it as “lunacy”.

The 37-year-old’s divorce from Cyrus, 63, was finalised in August, officially ending their marriage of less than a year.

The Achy Breaky Heart singer initially filed the paperwork in May, citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct as the reason for the split. He also sought an annulment on the grounds of fraud.

The dramatic saga began with the pair striking up a friendship when Firerose – real name Johanna Hodges – was just 22 and Cyrus was about to turn 49.

Even back then, Firerose said she felt suspicious of his intentions, as she revealed in the latest issue of Stellar magazine.

“I was just a starving artist at the time. I didn’t have a TV because I couldn’t afford one. I knew of him, that once upon a time, he’d had a song. But I didn’t know much,” she explained.

“He said, I’ll just introduce you to everyone else and we can hang out for the rest of the day.

My gut instinct, honestly, was ‘what does this guy want?’ I probably should have had way

better boundaries. I was by no means interested.”

Firerose admitted: “When I think about what I just went through, I would have told my 22-year-old self to run in the opposite direction and never look back.”

The musicians’ years-long friendship turned romantic when they reconnected during the Covid pandemic, and Firerose – who was born and raised in Sydney before moving to LA – said she noticed a change in her own personality.

“All of a sudden, instead of being my normal lively, outgoing self, I became very introverted unless we were working or together in public, where I’d often try to be overly positive as I was scared to let anyone see how devastatingly withdrawn I’d become,” she claimed in Stellar.

“My family and friends all had the same experience: me withdrawing and pushing them away. The way I experienced it was: ‘Oh, he’s just really protective.’

“[He would say] things like, ‘Well, you can’t live that way anymore. You’re a Cyrus now. You can’t be going to church. You can’t be going to public places where people could follow

you home. You’re going to be murdered.’

“It sounds crazy, but that’s what was happening.”

Despite that, Firerose moved in with the singer, who is the father of Miley Cyrus, at his farm in Nashville and the pair eventually got married in October 2023.

“10/10/23 will always be the beautiful, joyous day that our two souls united as one in holy matrimony,” they wrote in a joint Instagram post.

“It was the most perfect, ethereal celebration of love we could have ever imagined.”

Their marriage lasted only seven months. Picture: Instagram

But in reality, as Firerose claimed in Stellar, she had been banned by Cyrus from having anyone bar one person with her on her own wedding day.

“I was allowed to have [my hairdresser] over because she was doing my hair,” she alleged.

“It was quite hurtful, in retrospect, and it breaks my heart. How did I not think that that was so weird and unacceptable?

“I justified it like, well, that’s my life now. I accepted his lunacy as reality. By the point where I realised it was too late, what was even worse was he blamed me somehow for everything that had previously gone wrong in his life.

“For someone who’s had so many good things happen to him, and so much luck and so many

blessings, to be that empty is really sad. And I thought, I’m just going to keep loving him, pouring my heart and soul into this relationship.”

She described her ex’s behaviour as ‘hurtful’. Picture: Instagram

Within months, things quickly fell apart, with Firerose claiming they “went to bed together” one night – and when she woke up, “he wasn’t there”.

“It wasn’t abnormal for him to shut me out and give me the silent treatment, but it was very unusual for him to leave for a whole day,” she told the magazine.

“He didn’t come home that night. I was alone on the farm by myself, with no security lights on. I was terrified and baffled, as he wasn’t answering my calls or texts.”

Even worse, her then-husband “knew [she] had to be at the hospital the next day” for a double mastectomy, a surgery she’d chosen to undergo after being diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene, which increases the chances of a person developing breast cancer.

The split quickly became an ugly public battle, with both sides trading barbs.

The divorce was finalised in August, with the New York Post reporting that Firerose walked away with no money from her ex, but that he handed over his claims to credits and royalties for songs they wrote and published together.

Firerose told Stellar she was choosing to open up with her side of the story now “with the hope that somehow there’s more awareness of the fact that this is much more common, unfortunately, than anyone would like to think.”

She added: “I had to learn that it was something outside of me, something that I couldn’t fix.”

Find more from Stellar via Instagram @stellarmag or pick up a copy inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA)

Originally published as Aussie singer Firerose’s explosive new claims about Billy Ray Cyrus split