Nearly a year after Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth’s divorce was finalized, Cyrus is ready to talk candidly about why their relationship ended. The singer appeared on the Howard Stern show today, where she discussed her new album, Plastic Hearts.
She confirmed that its first track, “WTF Do I Know?”, is indeed about her ex-husband. According to Cyrus, the line “I don’t even miss you,” was “at that minute, [about Hemsworth],” Cyrus said. “Sometimes you miss people more than others, and sometimes, things get easier. Time kind of heals all, but that was at a time where I felt really strong. And then somedays I don’t.”
Cyrus went on to explain why the two wed, saying they may have never gotten married if they hadn’t lost their Malibu home in the Woolsey fire in 2018. The trauma from the fire led her to that decision, rather than a deeply-rooted desire to be Hemsworth’s wife rather than fiancée.
“We were together since 16,” Cyrus said. “Our house burned down. We had been like, engaged—I don’t know if we really ever thought we were actually going to get married, but when we lost our house in Malibu—which if you listen to my voice pre- and post-fire, they’re very different so that trauma really affected my voice. And I was actually in South Africa, so I couldn’t come home, and like, my animals were tied to a post at the beach. I lost everything. I had polaroids of Elvis, like front row, passed on from—I got a couple grandmas to give me their Elvis polaroids. I always became friends with my friends’ grandmas so I could get the goods from the artists I love.”
“I had so much and it was all gone, every song I had ever written was in that house,” she continued. “Every photograph of me that my parents had given to me, all my scripts, I lost everything. And so in trying to put that back together, instead of going, ‘Oh, nature kind of did something I couldn’t do for myself; it forced me to let go,’ I ran toward the fire.
Which is not abnormal, a lot of animals do this and end up dying, like deers run into the forest. You’re attracted to that heat and me being an intense person and not wanting to sit with it, and not wanting to go, you know, ‘What could be purposeful about this?’ I just clung to what I had left of that house, which was me and him. And I really do and did love him very, very, very much and still do, always will.”
Cyrus revealed later in the interview that the two had their private struggles. “There was too much conflict,” she said. She added, “When I come home, I want to be anchored by someone. I don’t get off on drama or fighting.”