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Tish Cyrus-Purcell opened up about her difficult divorce from ex-husband Billy Ray Cyrus in a new interview. The 56-year-old producer — who is now married to Dominic Purcell – admitted to having a “psychological breakdown” amid her split from Miley Cyrus’ father.
After her mother died in 2020, Tish grieved alone, which forced her to take “a really good, hard look at life, my life,” she told podcast host Alex Cooper during the latest episode of the “Call Her Daddy.” Tish’s daughter Brandi Cyrus sat beside her during the conversation.
“It was so crazy because, honestly, my two biggest fears in life were always being alone and my mom passing away,” Tish explained. “I was like, ‘I just don’t know if I’ll survive when my mom dies.’ Like, honestly. And I had, like, one month of a, honestly, complete psychological breakdown. It was the worst thing — like, honestly. It was not good.”
Tish then pointed out that she “could not eat. I could not sleep. I could not stop crying,” and she “literally weighed, like, 130 [pounds].”
“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 admitted.
Moreover, Tish confessed that her and Billy Ray’s marriage “had not been in a good place for a long time,” adding, “And I think I did stay so long out of fear of being alone. Like, I had met him when I was 23, 24.”
The Hopetown Entertainment president also recalled reaching out to a psychiatrist, asking them to “please put [her] in a mental hospital,” to which they replied “‘I do not think that’s the best thing for either of us,” Tish claimed.
“[I was just] looking at myself and going, ‘What in the heck are you doing?’” Tish said. “And so, I literally just had made that firm decision [to get a divorce] and was like, ‘I’m moving on with my life.’ And, you know what, girl? It worked out for the best.”
While Tish “never wanted to get a divorce,” in the first place, she acknowledged that her marriage to the “Achy Breaky Heart” crooner, 62, “fell apart.” Brandi later added that watching her parents’ relationship crumble “opened [her] eyes to see some of the things that he was doing that [she] didn’t know before.”
The Cyrus family’s dynamic has sparked speculation among fans in recent years. Many have wondered whether a feud brewed among some of the siblings, primarily between Miley, 31, and her younger sister, Noah Cyrus. In addition to Miley, Noah and Brandi, Tish and Billy Ray also share Trace and Braison Cyrus together.
Just last weekend at the Grammy Awards, Miley seemingly snubbed some of her family members, including her father, during one of her acceptance speeches when she joked about forgetting to wear underwear.