Why Miley Cyrus Chose to Sing About Her ‘Toxic’ Relationship With Liam Hemsworth Three Years After Divorce

Miley Cyrus’ new album Endless Summer Vacation has plenty of tracks believed to be about her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, the man she was with for 10 years of her life. On the album, she lyrically explores their breakup and drops hints that Hemsworth may have cheated on her. So why address all this musically now, over three years after Hemsworth filed for divorce in August 2019?

A Cyrus source explained the singer’s logic to People: “She’s not trying to bash Liam, but she feels like she has every right to own the narrative after everyone was picking her apart after the breakup.” The source also noted that the years following the breakup have given Cyrus “time to process and heal,” leaving her ready to “tell her side of the story.”

“She’s the healthiest and happiest she’s been in a long time,” the source said. “Everyone was blaming her for the divorce and calling her this wild child, but that wasn’t fair. Their relationship and marriage was toxic, and she was heartbroken.”

Hemsworth hasn’t publicly commented on the album yet. Both he and Cyrus have moved on. Cyrus is dating singer Maxx Morando, while Hemsworth has been with model Gabriella Brooks.

Cyrus spoke out about their divorce on The Howard Stern Show in December 2020, explaining that losing their house in the Woolsey Fire led them to get married when they really shouldn’t have.

“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.”

Senior News and Strategy Editor

Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.