Billy Ray Cyrus asked a court to annul his marriage to Firerose after seven months. After his initial filing, he also sought a temporary restraining order to stop to her allegedly unauthorized use of his credit card. She then accused him of domestic abuse, while he accused her of lying about past marriages and attempting to isolate him from his family.
Here’s the latest on what we know, including Cyrus’s response to leaked audio of him berating his now-estranged wife.
No more sparks?
June 11, 2024: Billy Ray Cyrus is snuffing out his marriage to Firerose. The country performer and famous father filed to divorce his singer wife after just seven months, per TMZ. Not just that — he’s asking the court to annul their marriage, claiming it was fraudulent. There are few clues as to whether he’s talking about frauds of the heart or the bank account, but Cyrus did cite “inappropriate marital conduct” in the divorce filing along with the usual irreconcilable differences. We do know, according the reported filing, that the couple separated on May 22 and that Cyrus had kicked Firerose (born Johanna Rose Hodges) out of the house by May 24. He has been funding her search for somewhere new to live, initially paying $500 per night for temporary housing and then agreeing to pay $5,000 per month for 90 days or until the divorce is finalized.
Cyrus, 62, and Firerose, 35, began dating shortly before he finalized his divorce to his ex-wife, Tish, in 2022. Their marriage seems to have driven a wedge between Billy Ray and his most famous daughter, Miley. She made a point to thank her “mommy” and “sister” when accepting a Grammy earlier this year, but not Billy Ray. What’s more, she walked Tish down the aisle when she remarried, to actor Dominic Purcell, last summer but did not attend Billy Ray’s wedding just months later. (Miley’s sister, Noah, might feel differently about Tish and Purcell.)
Billy Ray first met Firerose over a decade before they began dating on the set of Hannah Montana, where she was auditioning. Fans have speculated that Miley, 31, resents her father for dating someone just four years older than her. Shortly after the Grammys, a source told Us Weekly that Billy Ray had “tried reaching out to Miley many times.” Days before news of Billy Ray’s split became public, he reached out again publicly, posting a childhood photo of Miley on Instagram and writing that he’s “incredibly proud of her.”
To his credit
June 14, 2024: Weeks after asking a court to annul his marriage, Billy Ray Cyrus has filed an emergency motion seeking a temporary restraining order against Firerose over her allegedly “unauthorized” use of his credit cards and accounts. According to documents obtained by People, Cyrus has accused her of making $96,986 in “fraudulent charges” — including payments to her attorneys — on his American Express business card since the day he filed for divorce. He claims that he and Firerose were never authorized as signers or users on each other’s cards or accounts.
Firerose’s attorney filed a response arguing that she has used his card with his permission since June 2022, and continued to do so after their wedding. Her attorneys said the couple would “routinely go over” her expenses on the card. “Throughout the divorce proceedings, the parties are to live as per the status quo during the marriage,” the filing reads. “Wife was simply living as she has since October 10, 2023, and Husband has no right to cut her off.”
More allegations
June 19, 2024: This is turning into a fully fledged legal battle. In court documents filed on June 14 and obtained by People on June 18, Firerose accused Billy Ray Cyrus of “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse” and alleged that he has substance abuse issues that make him “unpredictable and volatile.” According to the complaint, Cyrus filed for divorce less than 24 hours before Firerose was scheduled for a preventative double mastectomy. (She discovered in 2020 that she has a gene mutation that makes her more likely to get breast cancer.) Firerose alleges that Cyrus “continuously launched verbal assaults” at her ahead of the procedure, and that she was afraid that leaving or seeking help would impact her surgery or recovery process. “Wife relied on Husband’s promises to pay for her surgery, and Husband has now repudiated that promise,” the complaint alleges. “On the day Wife was set to get her surgery, she was instead searching for a place to live and under a significant amount of emotional distress.”
In a June 18 statement to People, Cyrus’s lawyers said that Firerose’s abuse claim is “especially confusing and suspicious in its veracity since she begged Mr. Cyrus to forgive her and take her back only 2 days after he filed his pleadings to dissolve his marriage.” People obtained a copy of a June 17 complaint filed by Cyrus that includes a handwritten note and a lengthy text message he received after filing from divorce. Both messages are allegedly from Firerose. “Please let’s work this out and not become anything but closer out of this hellish experience. I need you. I love you. I am so sorry,” the note reads in part. The text similarly expresses love and hope for reconciliation, noting that the sender can’t eat and has lost five pounds. “Please give me a chance to make this right. I can explain everything but I need you on my side,” the text concludes. “I need my Hero back. 🙏😭❤️”
Cyrus’s complaint also levels some new allegations against Firerose, including that she “had been conducting a campaign to isolate” him from his family and, without his knowledge, blocked at least one of his daughters from communicating with him. He further accused her of lying about two past marriages and trying to use the Cyrus last name to help her career.
On the record
July 24, 2024: In audio recordings leaked today, Billy Ray Cyrus can be heard berating Firerose, calling her a “fucking selfish bitch,” an “idiot,” and a “dumbass.” He also accuses her of “walking all over” him. When Firerose says he’s “screaming,” Cyrus replies, “This would not be happening if you were to just shut your fucking mouth.” It’s unclear when the recording was taken, but a source told “Page Six” that the argument happened after Firerose allegedly stopped Cyrus from taking the stage with Nicki Minaj at a tour stop in Tennessee. (Minaj performed in Nashville in March 2024).
Cyrus’s legal team alleged in a statement to “Page Six” that Firerose leaked the audio as part of a “last-ditch effort to squeeze money” out of Cyrus before a court-ordered mediation next week. “With regards to this recording, Ms. Hodges is the person who made the recording without telling Mr. Cyrus that she was recording him,” Cyrus’s lawyers said in part. “Of course, she was intentionally on her best behavior since she knew the recording was being made.”
Cyrus also took to his Instagram Story to issue his own response. “Hell yeah I was at my wit’s end,” he wrote. “As every day went by, I started realizing something was wrong. And that’s before I knew she was a fraud. I just knew something wasn’t right.” Cyrus went on to claim that he had not known she had been married to David Hodges or been arrested for “felony residential burglary.” In case there was somehow any confusion about whom he was talking about, the text was posted over a photo of a rose with flames around the border. “I saw before my very own eyes, everything I thought I knew about her, was a lie,” Cyrus continued. “She was trying to take over my career, my life and usurp the Cyrus name for her own gain. See you in court.”
This post has been updated.