A chance meeting on the Hannah Montana set has led to one of the year’s biggest tabloid stories.
How about this domino effect: A chance meeting on the Hannah Montana set has prompted one of the biggest tabloid stories of 2024. Billy Ray Cyrus is filing to divorce Australian singer Firestone after just seven months of marriage. Over the past few months, the allegations have been flying from both sides: fraud, abuse, a hidden marriage, retaliation for a double mastectomy. Even Billy Ray’s daughters, Miley and Noah, are caught in the mess. Now, Firerose is laying everything bare to “Page Six” while Billy Ray continues to make pointed Instagram posts. Let’s see how things flamed out and exploded.
Around 2010: Firerose is leaving an audition for a role on Hannah Montana when she runs into actor Billy Ray Cyrus walking his dog on set. “I was like, This girl’s a star,” Billy Ray later remembers.
July 2, 2021: Firerose releases “New Day,” a duet with Billy Ray.
“FIREROSE is the very definition of persistence, combined with a tremendous amount of talent as a songsmith, vocalist and producer,” Billy Ray tells American Songwriter, which describes him as her “longtime friend.”
September 22, 2021: A Billy Ray press release teases a “new album written, performed, and produced by Firerose and Billy Ray Cyrus,” and notes that Firerose has signed to Billy Ray’s Sunnagernimo Publishing.
April 6, 2022: Tish Cyrus files for divorce from Billy Ray Cyrus, whom she’s been married to since 1993. It’s the couple’s third time filing, after previously reconciling in 2011 and 2013. This time, Tish says they haven’t been living together for over two years.
April 11, 2022: In a statement to People, Billy Ray and Tish confirm that this time, they’re over for real. “It is after 30 years, five amazing children and a lifetime of memories, we have decided to go our separate ways — not with sadness, but with love in our hearts,” they say.
August 25, 2022: “The world is a better place with you in it,” Firerose writes in an Instagram post for Billy Ray’s birthday.
September 13, 2022: Firerose shows off a diamond ring on Instagram, prompting engagement speculation.
September 28, 2022: Firerose and Billy Ray have “been dating for a little while,” a source tells People. Their relationship reportedly came out of their collaboration, but did not overlap with Billy Ray and Tish. “It is what it is,” the source adds, with no comment on that ring.
October 20, 2022: Amid rumors of a falling out, a source tells E! News that Billy Ray’s star daughter Miley “doesn’t have a relationship” with Firerose. “”She, of course, hopes he is happy,” the source continues. “But Miley has been closer to her mom Tish throughout the divorce.”
November 11, 2022: Billy Ray and Firerose release their second collaboration, “Time.” “One thing that I know for sure / Is I can never let her go,” they sing.
November 16, 2022: Billy Ray and Firerose announce their engagement in People. Billy Ray shares that he proposed in August, and Firerose later designed her own ring. “We found this harmony, and this rhythm, this melody to life,” he says. Billy also says “there’s no hard feelings” among his family about the engagement.
August 10, 2023: Firerose and Billy Ray release “Plans,” written by Diane Warren.
August 23, 2023: Firerose makes her red carpet debut with Billy Ray at the ACM Honors at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The couple matches in black, with Firerose also wearing a pink-and-silver bedazzled jacket.
October 10, 2023: Billy Ray and Firerose get married. Miley, who just served as maid of honor at Tish’s August wedding to Dominic Purcell, reportedly did not attend. “It was the most perfect, ethereal celebration of love we could have ever imagined,” Billy Ray writes on Instagram the following day.
March 28, 2024: Billy Ray and Firerose release their fourth song together, “After the Storm.” “Only by the grace of God did I survive my darkest nights,” Firerose tells People. “There is so much truth in these lyrics and it’s my purpose to help others find strength in their toughest hours.”
April 12, 2024: Firerose celebrates their six-month anniversary on Instagram. “Life isn’t always easy… but it sure helps when your husband’s also your best friend,” she writes. “Thank you Lord.”
May 23, 2024: Billy Ray releases “You Came Along,” in which he sings about someone who “stole my heart so completely.” “Now I know the love is real / I love you now and always will,” he sings in the chorus. The same day, it will later be reported, he files for divorce from Firerose, over irreconcilable differences and “inappropriate marital conduct.” He additionally files to annul their marriage, citing fraud. Per the filing, he lists May 22 as their date of separation and asks Firerose to leave their house by May 24.
June 13, 2024: Billy Ray requests a temporary restraining order to keep Firerose from accessing his money, claiming she racked up nearly $97,000 on his credit cards between May 23 and June 7. Firerose’s lawyers hit back that the situation is “no emergency” and she was simply living “as per the status quo during the marriage,” claming she’s had access to his cards since June 2022.
June 14, 2024: In a new filing, Firerose alleges she “was the victim of extreme verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse” during her marriage to Billy Ray. Her lawyers add that Billy Ray’s “persistent drug use” and marijuana consumption made him “unpredictable and volatile.” She says Billy Ray filed for divorce just one day before she was slated to have a preventative double mastectomy surgery. Firerose claims that ahead of the surgery, Billy Ray “would often call her a ‘selfish fucking bitch’ and continually allege that she was using him.” She says she had to delay the surgery “indefinitely” without Billy Ray’s health insurance. She also claims Billy Ray attempted to thwart her career by forcing her to fire their shared manager, causing her to lose $415,000. On Instagram, Billy Ray shares a note from Johnny Cash, writing, “I made a promise to myself not to look back and only look forward.” Meanwhile, a Miley source tells Us that “no one approved of the marriage” in their family, adding that she thinks the divorce will bring “some peace.” The source continues, “She thinks this is a good step in the right direction for him.”
June 19, 2024: Responding to Firerose’s claims, Billy Ray accuses Firerose of hiding a past marriage from him in a new filing. He claims Firerose told him her last name was Hodges, but it was not, and that his attorneys later unearthed her past divorce, which prompted him to file for divorce. He also accuses Firerose of “conducting a campaign to isolate” him from his family, and specifically blocking one of his daughters on his phone. A Billy Ray source tells People Firerose “isn’t the person he thought he married.” The source accuses her of using him financially, but adds that they have a prenup.
June 24, 2024: Billy Ray now claims he was abused by Firerose in a new filing — “not only verbally and emotionally by [Firerose], but PHYSICALLY abused.” Billy Ray’s manager, Scott Adkins, says in an affidavit that he witnessed the abuse. Billy Ray also denies Firerose’s abuse allegations, citing a note from her asking him to “please give me a chance to make this right.” He additionally claims Firerose threatened to hurt his reputation by claiming he was divorcing her over the double mastectomy. A rep for Firerose tells TMZ Adkins’s “credibility is questionable” as an employee of Billy Ray. “What Billy Ray fails to recognize is when you have a decades-long history of emotional and psychological abuse, people start to take notice,” the rep says. “The truth will come to light.”
June 26, 2024: “Sometimes you gotta take your daughter’s advice and just ‘Stand Still,’” Billy Ray writes on Instagram, quoting his daughter Noah Cyrus’s song.
June 30, 2024: Firerose calls Billy Ray “an evil man” in an interview with “Page Six.” She describes alleged “systematic isolation” by Billy Ray, claiming that for a time he didn’t let her have a car and only let her leave the house to go to the chiropractor and get her nails done once a month. Firerose also claims he kept family and friends from visiting, and screened the texts and emails she sent. She reveals that they began dating long before Billy Ray divorced Tish, and that she was hospitalized two days before their eventual wedding after passing out from stress. She says their divorce has been “excruciatingly painful” and “a smear campaign.”
July 1, 2024: Billy Ray posts an image of the word fraud over a candle, covered by rose petals, to his Instagram Story.
July 2, 2024: A source tells People Billy Ray is “trying to put all the drama in the past,” adding that the divorce has been “annoying” to him.
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