Miley Cyrus Talks Trying to ‘Save’ Herself With Liam Hemsworth Marriage, Admits She ‘Kind of’ Wants to ‘F—k’ Dua Lipa and More Revelations

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Miley Cyrus Talks Trying to ‘Save’ Herself With Liam Hemsworth Marriage, Admits She ‘Kind of’ Wants to ‘F—k’ Dua Lipa and More Revelations

Still her muse? As Miley Cyrus promotes her new album, Plastic Hearts, she is getting candid about how her marriage to — and divorce from — Liam Hemsworth affects her life. “We were together since [I was] 16. Our house burned down. We had been, like, engaged — I don't know if we really ever thought we were actually going to get married — but when we lost our house in Malibu, which if you listen to my voice pre- and post-fire, they’re very different so that trauma really affected my voice,” the 27-year-old “Bad Karma” singer told Howard Stern about Hemsworth, 30, in a revealing new Interview. "Me being an intense person and not wanting to sit with it and not wanting to go, you know, 'What could be purposeful about this?' I just clung to what I had left of that house, which was me and him.” One month after losing their home, Cyrus and Hemsworth wed in December 2018. The pair, who dated on and off for nearly a decade, filed for divorce in August 2019 after eight months of marriage. She subsequently began a whirlwind romance with Kaitlynn Carter. After her split from the Hills star, she started seeing longtime friend Cody Simpson before her divorce paperwork was even finalized in January. Cyrus and Simpson called it quits earlier this year. During an interview with Rolling Stone for her January 2021 cover story, Cyrus expanded on why the fire pushed her to marry Hemsworth: “As you drown, you reach for that lifesaver and you want to save yourself. I think that’s really what, ultimately, getting married was for me. One last attempt to save myself.” Cyrus added that she wasn't living a "fairy-tale" that many people thought she was during her relationship with the Australian actor. [jwplayer OL1A4k6i] “At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable or ever going to get me to my fullest potential and purpose," the former Disney star told the magazine. Cyrus added that the world’s perception of her — based on her appearance or relationship status — is often incorrect. “’Hair’s long and blond, she’s sane right now. She cannot be f—ked up on drugs. It’s when her hair is painted or she’s growing out her armpit hair [that] she’s on drugs. … She’s got a man. She’s living in a house playing wife.’ Dude, I was way more off my path at that time than any of the times before where my sanity was being questioned,” she explained. “I don’t like ever saying anything in a very solid concrete way, but right now I have been focusing on sobriety as I wanted to wake up 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. If I’ve ever learned to balance myself and to not take it too far, I would. But so far any time I’ve messed with that, it hasn’t gotten me what I want.” Scroll through for more from Cyrus about Hemsworth and how he influenced her new album:

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On ‘Playing House’ With Liam

“In early 2018, I was playing house, which felt really good at the time. Now I have this healthy perspective that I didn’t have before. I learned a lot about what I can and cannot be for someone else and what I can and cannot accept for myself,” she told Rolling Stone about her Younger Now era.

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On Conflict in Their Marriage

“There was too much conflict,” Cyrus told Stern. "When I come home, I want to be anchored by someone. I don't get off on drama or fighting.”

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On How Still Loves Liam

“I really do and did love him very, very, very much and still do, always will,” she told Stern about the actor.

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On Writing ‘WTF Do I Know’ About Liam

Cyrus confirmed to Stern that “WTF Do I Know” is about Hemsworth, including the lyric, "I don’t even miss you." She noted, however, that she doesn’t always feel that way about her former spouse. “It’s not that it's how I feel every second of the day, it's how I felt for a moment," she explained. "That works as some sort of protective armor and there's a sense of myself that does feel that way. A record is all of these mason jars filled with something that lights up, that you catch something that's kind of magical for a moment, but it doesn’t have to be you all the time."

Cyrus continued: "Sometimes you miss people more than others, and sometimes, things get easier. Time kind of heals all, but that was at a time where I felt really strong. And then some days I don't."

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On Sex in Quarantine, Future Relationships

"I do a lot of FaceTime sex — it's the safest sex. I'm not getting COVID,” she told Stern. "I am definitely not going to be doing anything that's irresponsible for myself or for other people. It's just ridiculous for anybody that won't take the right precautions to keep each other safe. It's f—ked up."

Cyrus, who noted she’s “had relationships with all genders,” added that she’s “in the mood for some D” right now. “But I'm down for whatever, honestly,” she concluded.

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Her Relationship With Dua Lipa

Cyrus’ “Prisoner” collaborator has been linked to Anwar Hadid since June 2019. When asked by Stern about their relationship, the Hannah Montana alum clarified that she “did not have sex" with Lipa, but she's attracted to her.

"Dua Lipa constantly reminds me. She gives me the 'in your dreams.' I've never actually had a wet dream about Dua Lipa. That's something that she's projecting onto me. I did not get to have sex with her unfortunately,” she quipped. "I don't really wanna f--k Dua Lipa that much. I think I know her too well as a friend. … But I definitely like kind of pretending that we have because it ends up getting us a lot of views on our music video. So, it's just manipulation, just the standard pop-culture manipulation. Ok, I kind of want to f--k her, like, 5 percent. The more and more I'm thinking about it, I kind of do."

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On Writing ‘Angels Like You’

Cyrus told Rolling Stone that “Angels Like You,” which was almost her first single off Plastic Hearts, is about how she’s been labeled “crazy” over the years.

“It was that I was crazy, that I was, even at some points, cold or unable to settle down,” she said. “I’m the stereotype. I’m what you thought I’d be, I’m everything they said I would be. I had some guilt or shame with that song in the way that it’s written, but now that I listen to it, it is actually apologetic. It is saying, ‘It’s not your fault I ruin everything, and it’s not your fault that I can’t be what you need.’ My independence and, I guess, my survivalist instincts make it where I can seem selfish."

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On Breaking Her Sobriety

Cyrus told Stern that she doesn’t consider herself an alcoholic, but drinking has a negative effect on her relationships. During her interview with Rolling Stone, she admitted that she drank in recent months amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I was pretty much fully sober. Then, like a lot of people during the pandemic, I fell off. It was really a struggle. Mental health and anxiety and all that. I lost myself there, and now I’m back on five weeks,” she said. “Haven’t done drugs in years. Honestly, I never try to, again, be a fortune-teller. I try to not be naive. Things f—king happen. But from sitting here with you right now, I would say it would have to be a cold day in hell for me to relapse on drugs.”

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On Her Disney Scandals

Cyrus made headlines a lot in her teens, including for racy photos leaking online and controversial performance of “Party in the USA” at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. She told Rolling Stone about how her parents, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, handled the scandals behind-the-scenes.  

“My dad ignored it because it’s just like any teenage girl and their dad’s like, ‘Let’s please not have this conversation.’ My mom, I think it made her really angry. I think even she felt it could be distracting from what I was doing,” she said. “She knew the voice and talents that I could showcase. She was like, ‘What the f—k? You have the biggest song. Can you just make it about the song? Why do you have to make it about being a stripper?’”