Tish Cyrus is opening up about how divorcing her husband of 30 years, Billy Ray Cyrus, took a toll on her mental health.
While appearing on Wednesday’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Tish, 56, spoke about her difficult decision to call it quits with the country singer, 62, in the same year her mother died, in 2020.
“It was so crazy because, honestly, my two biggest fears in life were always being alone and my mom passing away,” Tish Cyrus, a manager and producer, said.
Noting that Billy Ray Cyrus was living in Tennessee while she stayed in California, where her superstar daughter Miley Cyrus lives, she said, “I had one month of a complete psychological breakdown. It was the worst thing; it was not good. I just kind of pushed the mom thing under the rug, and then the divorce thing came.”
The former couple went through brief separations in 2010 and 2013, then ended the marriage in 2022.
She added: “I could not eat. I could not sleep. I could not stop crying. I literally weighed, like, 130. I don’t have my mom, and then I don’t have my husband that’s been my husband for 30 years. Like, holy crap, I’m scared.”
Tish Cyrus said that during the rocky time she reached out to celebrity psychiatrist Daniel Amen to ask him to “please put me in a mental hospital” but that he advised against it, which she said ultimately was for the better.
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Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus tied the knot in 1993, but she admitted they hadn’t been in a “good place for a long time,” adding that her crippling fear of being alone prolonged their relationship for “so long.”
“[I was just] looking at myself and going, ‘What in the heck are you doing?’” she recalled. “And so I literally just had made that firm decision and was like, ‘I’m moving on with my life.’ And, you know what, girl? It worked out for the best.”
Billy Ray became engaged to Australian singer Firerose in August 2022, just months after Tish filed for divorce, and married in October 2023. Tish got engaged to “Prison Break” star Dominic Purcell in November 2022 and tied the knot in August 2023.
The exes had three children together: Miley, 31, Braison, 29, and Noah, 24. They also share two children, Brandi, 36, and Trace, 34, from Tish’s previous relationship. The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer is also dad to Christopher, 31, from a previous relationship.