Billy Ray Cyrus had an emotional reaction when daughter Miley Cyrus gifted him the song “Secrets” for his birthday.
“My dad cried,” Miley, 32, recalled during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning published on Sunday, October 5. “You know, you don’t see your dad cry a lot. But with me and my dad, we just have always communicated better through music with each other.”
When asked if the father-daughter duo are “at peace now with each other,” Miley replied, “Yeah.”
Miley revealed in June that the track, off her Something Beautiful album, was written with Billy Ray, 64, in mind.
“I wrote this song about my dad, because I wanted him to tell me, even though they were secrets, even though I didn’t really wanna know, I wanted to be the one he felt safe enough to tell me the things that were damning and damaging to the family,” she said on the “Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky” podcast at the time.
Miley continued, “But I wanted him to think that, as a middle child, I’m old enough that I could take some of that you know. And I always wanted my family to feel like I was the safe place, that I always had the white flag when they came to talk to me.”
In August, Billy Ray gushed over Miley’s gesture while sharing a snippet of the song. “Secrets / I want to keep your secrets / Like sunlight in the shadows / Like footsteps in the grass,” Miley can be heard singing.
“For my birthday, Miley gave me the gift of music and wrote me a song called ‘Secrets’ and got my favorite musicians Fleetwood Mac to play on it!” Billy Ray wrote via Instagram at the time. “ I love you Miley ❤️.”
Miley and Billy Ray, who was married to Tish Cyrus until their 2022 divorce, have been open about their relationship ups and downs through the years. (Billy Ray and Tish, 58, also share Braison, 31, Noah, 25. Billy Ray adopted Tish’s children Brandi, 38, and Trace, 36, after their marriage. He’s also dad to Christopher, 33, whom he shares with ex Kristin Luckey.)
“My dad and I have had our challenges over the years,” Miley wrote in a May Instagram statement. “Now, in my 30s, family is my priority above all else. I’m at peace knowing bridges have been built and time has done a lot of healing.”
Miley shared that her perspective on their family dynamics has changed through the years.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents — because my mom’s really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard,” she said during a May interview for The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast. “I think I took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain.”
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