Miley Cyrus Confessed Why She Shed No Tears For Liam Hemsworth

Cyrus and Hemsworth divorced after a little over half a year of marriage, the culmination of a rocky decade-long relationship. At the time, the pair’s separation seemed like a harmonious one. In fact, the latter even wrote on Instagram that he wanted his ex-wife to have a healthy and happy life. But not everything in Hollywood and on social media is always as it appears.

While Hemsworth’s more guarded about his personal life, Cyrus wears her heart on her sleeve. In the wake of their divorce, the pop star was very vocal in defending herself against accusations of having cheated on her husband while they were married. Then, in November 2020 the singer made a startling revelation on Scandinavian talk show Skavlan.

Now, 2018 had been a tough year for the star couple, and their marriage was apparently fraught with difficulties. But Cyrus said that she’d shed few tears over the couple’s breakup. Before the world could accuse her of being cold or heartless, though, the pop star explained exactly why her eyes had remained dry.

It’s perhaps been a long time since Miley Cyrus knew a life without controversy. As the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus and goddaughter of singing legend Dolly Parton, it was almost inevitable that she’d pursue a career in entertainment. She found fame in her own right playing the lead role in the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, a part she won aged just 11.

Hannah Montana premiered during in 2006 to the network’s biggest ever viewership and was soon one of its most successful shows. It made an instant star out of Cyrus, whom American teenagers quickly took to their hearts. The singer and actress, at the time just 13 years old, embarked on concerts across the U.S. promoting the series.

Around the same time, Hemsworth’s star was on the rise in his native Australia. He’d been acting in high-school productions before then moving into TV in his mid-teens. After signing with an agent, Hemsworth secured minor roles in the successful Aussie series McLeod’s Daughters and Home And Away in 2007.

By this point Cyrus was already transitioning from her role as Hannah Montana into her real-life persona. Franchise albums were quickly followed by releases under her own name. The singer-actress also embarked on a tour alongside her famous alter ego. And it worked well, with some industry insiders comparing the level of buzz to that once created by The Beatles and Elvis.

Hemsworth’s own career started to take off with a regular role in the Aussie soap Neighbours. And by the end of the decade his talents had started to attract attention in Hollywood. While the young actor saw a part in The Expendables slip through his fingers and then lost out on the title character in Thor to his older brother Chris, his relocation to L.A. led him straight to Cyrus.

Hemsworth’s own career started to take off with a regular role in the Aussie soap Neighbours. And by the end of the decade his talents had started to attract attention in Hollywood. While the young actor saw a part in The Expendables slip through his fingers and then lost out on the title character in Thor to his older brother Chris, his relocation to L.A. led him straight to Cyrus.

Observers noticed a spark between the pair on set and soon enough romance blossomed. They made their relationship public at the movie’s premiere early in 2010 and looked happy together in a publicity piece for Teen Vogue. But before long, cracks began to appear in their relationship.

Rumors circulated at the time that Cyrus and Hemsworth separated in August 2010. And though it’s believed they reconciled the following month, it set a precedent for the tumultuous relationship ahead. While the couple were regularly seen with each other throughout 2011, it seemed as though things weren’t always as cozy behind closed doors.

By 2011 Hannah Montana was no more. Instead Cyrus courted controversy in her songs and concerts, perhaps in an effort to distance herself from the squeaky clean teen. Hemsworth was also doing well, having been cast in the Hunger Games franchise. Despite the couple’s heavy workloads and consequent time apart, fans’ appetite for relationship updates was strong.

The more eagle-eyed among the couple’s fan-base spotted Cyrus wearing something on her ring finger at the start of 2012. But the singer was quick to quash speculation that she and Hemsworth were engaged. She tweeted, “I’m not engaged. I’ve worn this same ring on this finger since November! People just wanna find something to talk about! It’s a topaz, people!”

Regardless, several months later the pair announced via People magazine that they were indeed engaged. The then-22-year-old actor apparently popped the question to his 19-year-old bride-to-be with an impressive ring in May that year. Cyrus said, “I’m so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam.” But there was trouble ahead.

Rumors abounded through 2013 that Cyrus and Hemsworth had called off their engagement. Then, People confirmed in April that though the couple were still cohabiting and engaged, the wedding itself had been postponed. But five months later they separated, with the singer later informing journalist Barbara Walters, “Now, I just feel like I can actually be happy.” Shade thrown.

Both Cyrus and Hemsworth appeared to have moved on with their lives by 2014. But come the end of the following year, talk was rife that the couple had again reconciled after the singer reputedly borrowed a Halloween outfit from her former beau. Then, as the Australian summer heated up, so did reports that they were back together.

After numerous sightings of the couple in Australia and the speculated return of the singer’s engagement ring, their reunion was finally confirmed. Hemsworth told men’s magazine GQ in May 2016, “Of course [the separation] was hard, man. But at the time we were going in different directions, and it’s just what needed to happen. We were both super-young, and it was a good decision at the time – we both needed that.”

But if “off-again on-again” was the theme of their relationship, then the next two years were marked by dizzying highs and devastating lows. Persistent reports arose that they’d married in secret, and the couple looked to be deeply in love. Then suddenly in mid-2018 Cyrus disappeared from Instagram, though fans were reassured by her continued presence in Hemsworth’s posts.

Then in the fall of 2018 the couple suffered the devastation of losing their home in a wildfire. But it was a loss that appeared to make their bond stronger, because in December fans got the news they’d longed for throughout the decade-long relationship. Yep, Cyrus and Hemsworth had finally married in a low-key and intimate Tennessee ceremony.

But, as perhaps was emblematic of their relationship, it wasn’t to last. They confirmed their split in August 2019, while a divorce agreement was signed four months later. Cyrus quickly hit back at detractors who claimed that she’d been unfaithful. And she later informed radio host Howard Stern that “there was too much conflict” between her and Hemsworth.

“When I come home, I want to be anchored by someone,” Cyrus continued. “I don’t get off on drama or fighting. I really do and did love him very, very, very much and still do, always will.” But while the singer was understandably devastated by how things had worked out, she apparently shed no tears over the breakdown of her marriage.

And while Hemsworth’s remained largely silent on the subject of his divorce, his ex-wife’s been far more vocal. Late in 2020 Cyrus appeared via video link on Skavlan, a chat show that airs in Sweden and Norway. The singer and actress started by describing the dreadful time she’d had recently.

“I’ve gone through a lot of trauma and loss in the last couple years,” the singer explained. “I had a house fire in Malibu where I lost my house and went through a divorce recently. My grandma, who I was super close with, I lost.” That’d be enough to set the waterworks flowing for many of us. But not Cyrus.

Cyrus continued, “In a way, I didn’t spend too much time crying over it. And it wasn’t because I was cold or trying to avoid feeling something, but it was just because it wasn’t going to change it.” So while some tears may have been shed, her divorce wasn’t something that Cyrus allowed herself to dwell on.

As the singer clarified, “I tried to just continue to be active in what I can control. Otherwise you just start feeling like you’re trapped.” In fact, rather than being anchored to grief, the “Party in the U.S.A.” singer actively seeks to move on from traumas. And in her words, she does that “through movement.”

“I heal through traveling and meeting new people,” she added. “As you lose one person, another person comes into your life.” And while Cyrus refuted any suggestions that she’d cheated on Hemsworth during their brief marriage, it wasn’t long before new romances were rumored to be blossoming for the former teen idol.

Months after news of the couple’s separation broke, Cyrus was romantically linked to Kaitlynn Carter, the 32-year-old best known for The Hills: New Beginnings. That dalliance was short lived, though. Before the end of the year the “Wrecking Ball” singer was seen stepping out with 20-something Australian singer and actor Cody Simpson.

During her conversation with the show’s host, Fredrik Skavlan, Cyrus admitted to being someone driven by her emotions. She said, “My feelings change really drastically all the time, because every experience we have and every second changes the way that you perceive your life.” But the singer’s also aware of how that might come across to others.

In fact, it’s a point that Skavlan picked up on. And so he asked Cyrus directly whether she felt she was becoming more emotional or less so the older she gets. At first she joked, “It depends if you ask dudes I’ve broken up with. They’ll say less.” But the pop star had more thoughts on the matter.

“I think [I’m] more [emotional],” she explained. “I would say there’s a stigma of coldness for a woman who actually really moves on.” Cyrus stressed that not crying wasn’t a sign of any lack of emotion. Nor was it to avoid processing her emotions. And it’s a subject that the pop star’s broached elsewhere since her divorce.

Cyrus described her breakup with Hemsworth as feeling “like a death.” She told the Call Her Daddy podcast in August 2020, “I tried not to get lost in the emotion… It’s like a death when you lose a loved one, it’s that deep. Honestly, sometimes [death] even feels easier because [with a breakup] the person is still walking on the Earth.”

But that’s not to say Cyrus sees her marriage as a mistake. On the contrary, the singer acknowledges that it was exactly what she needed at that point in her life. And in a way her union with Hemsworth helped her to recover from losing everything in that devastating house blaze just weeks earlier.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Cyrus described her marriage to Hemsworth as “one last attempt” to save herself from her turmoil. She said, “In a way, [the fire] did what I couldn’t do for myself. It removed me from what no longer was serving its purpose.” Her partner, then, was her life preserver.

“And then as you drown, you reach for that lifesaver and you want to save yourself,” Cyrus continued. “I think that’s really what, ultimately, getting married was for me. One last attempt to save myself.” Cyrus survived, of course. But that whole period of her life’s a time that the singer now looks back on seemingly without much affection.

Cyrus told MTV in August 2020, “When I look at my career, there was really a two year or one year period that doesn’t really make sense. I think you and I probably know that it has to do kind of with that more like ‘Younger Now,’ kind of ‘Malibu’ era.” This apparently refers to the period in 2017 when she and Hemsworth reconciled after previously calling off their engagement.

Cyrus also alluded to losing a sense of who she was. She added, “I think what happened in that, which does happen to a lot of people, and it’s not to villainize the partner, but you lose yourself in someone else sometimes.” But, with a divorce in her back pocket, the pop star’s in no hurry to settle down.

In another interview, Cyrus broached the subject of starting a family more generally as something she “never really cared that much” for. “I just personally don’t believe that’s a priority for me in my life,” she explained on Morning Mashup on radio station SiriusXM. “For me I don’t really think about marriage and things like this anymore.”

“I think we’re kind of set up for devastation – in that, from the time we’re little kids, we’re taught to claim other humans as our best friends forever,” Cyrus went on. “And you just don’t know who you’re going to be sitting with here right now. You never know who you’re going to evolve to be and who they’re going to evolve to be.”

For now, Cyrus is leaning towards life as a singleton. But as she wrote on Twitter in August 2019, “I’ve said it before and it remains true, I love Liam and always will. But at this point I had to make a healthy decision for myself to leave a previous life behind. I am the healthiest and happiest I have been in a long time.”