Talk about a close call! Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth fell in love in 2009 while shooting The Last Song and got married nine years later, but he wasn’t always keen on joining the project.
“I heard a rumor that he didn’t really want the role,” the former Disney star, 26, told Seventeen magazine in December 2009. “And when he came in to audition for the role, I’m thinking, ‘Here’s this guy, he’s amazingly good-looking, super confident and he doesn’t realize how blessed he is to be in this room, because I know how blessed I am. This is such a big opportunity for both of us.’ And I was thinking, ‘Ugh, gross.’ You know?”
However, Cyrus eventually bonded with Hemsworth, 28, and realized she had misjudged him. “Then I started talking with him and he was just the most genuinely precious, sweet person,” she gushed at the time. “And the second audition comes around and the chemistry was instant. From the time he walked in that door and we saw each other again, we lit up and we were excited to get [to] work and learn together.”
The Hannah Montana alum also revealed, “I was a little anxious about making this movie. I wanted everything to be perfect. To go on set and feel insecure was a totally new element for me. But he felt the same way. He admitted his insecurities and it was really nice to have someone who understands me for once.”
The costar couple got engaged in 2012 but split one year later. However, they reconciled in 2016 and tied the knot in a secret ceremony at their Nashville home on December 23. Cyrus confirmed the happy news via Instagram on Wednesday, December 26, with a series of romantic black-and-white photos from the event. Hemsworth also posted a snapshot of the duo embracing, writing, “My love.”
After the newlyweds shared their happy news, The Last Song author Nicholas Sparks tweeted a thoughtful message, which Cyrus responded to with three heart emojis.
The romance novelist, 52, previously weighed in on Cyrus and Hemsworth’s relationship in January 2016 after they got back together. “They’re both terrific people, right? It was great watching them,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “Really great to know that, you know, even after the breakup, they remained friends. I might tend to believe there was a little bit of magic involved.”
