Firerose Would Tell Her 22-Year-Old Self to 'Run in the Opposite Direction' from Billy Ray Cyrus Following Their Divorce

If Firerose could give advice to her younger self, she would tell her to run away from Billy Ray Cyrus as soon as they first met.

The 36-year-old Sydney-born singer opened up about her relationship with her 63-year-old ex-husband in an exclusive new interview with Starry magazine, published on Saturday, October 12. The two met in 2010 before separating in May 2024 and finalizing their divorce in August.

According to Firerose, her path first crossed with Hannah Montana alum when his dog approached her on the lot of the studio where he Hannah Montana was recorded. She was then 22 years old. Cyrus was 48 years old.

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She told the Australian magazine that Cyrus, who was married to long-term wife Tish at the time – although he filed for divorce from her the following year before eventually calling it quits – told her: “I’m just going to introduce you to everyone else and we I can hang out for the rest of the day.”

“My instinct, honestly, was: What does this guy want?” she remembered. “I probably should have had much better boundaries.”

Firerose and Billy Ray Cyrus in August 2023.

Jason Kempin/Getty

After they met in a Hollywood parking lot, Firerose said the pair would be dating, with Cyrus calling her his soulmate, even though she had “no interest whatsoever” in romancing the star at the time. “But,” she noted, “I couldn’t see 10 years into the future.”

The pair reunited during the pandemic, collaborating on a song before developing a romance that would turn into a four-year relationship and a seven-month marriage that both parties claimed was marked by abuse.

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

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Firerose claimed Cyrus love bombed her, making promises he never kept. “He would say bizarre things like, ‘We’re going to have this epic love story that you can’t even imagine. We’re having twins and we’ll call them Melody and Harmony.’ ”

He also isolated her from her friends and family, starting with their wedding in October 2023, where she had only one guest. “I was allowed to bring her because she was doing my hair. It was quite painful, in retrospect, and it breaks my heart,” she told the magazine. “How did I not think it was so strange and unacceptable? I justified myself as if it were my life now. I accepted his craziness as reality.”

This “craziness,” said Firerose Starryit lasted long after their wedding. “Suddenly, instead of being normal, lively, outgoing, I became very introverted, unless we were working or in public together, where I often tried to be overly positive because I was afraid that anyone would see how devastatingly withdrawn I would become,” she remembered.

“All my family and friends had the same experience: I was withdrawing and pushing them away,” she continued. “I experienced it: ‘Oh, he’s just protective.’ ”

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose.

Firerose/ Instagram

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To keep her at home, Firerose claimed the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer would say things like, “Well, you can’t live like that anymore. Now you are Cyrus. You can’t go to church. You cannot go to public places where people might follow you home. You will be killed.’ ”

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“It sounds crazy, but that’s what was happening,” she said. “By the time I realized it was too late, what was even worse was that he somehow blamed me for everything that had gone wrong in his life before.”

“For someone who has had so many good things happen, so much happiness and so many blessings, to be so empty is really sad,” added the singer about her ex-husband. “And I thought I would continue to love him, putting my heart and soul into this relationship.”

Firerose wants to share her story to show people that what she went through is “much more common, unfortunately, than anyone would like to think,” she told Starry. “I had to learn that it was something outside of me, something I couldn’t fix.”

“All I ever tried to do was love that person and trust them,” the musician said of Cyrus, “which was very ignorant of me.”

Billy Ray Cyrus says he’s ‘at my wits end’ as he addresses leaked audio berating estranged wife Firerose amid divorce

“I really wanted to believe that he was a good version of the man I fell in love with,” she added.

Cyrus’ rep did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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Source: HIS Education