The following article mentions suicide, addiction, domestic abuse, and eating disorders.
The Cyrus family has endured many tragedies throughout the years. Its biggest star, Miley Cyrus, has suffered the pitfalls of fame and experienced significant trauma, but is in a much better place these days. Miley has five siblings, with the baby of the family, her sister Noah Cyrus, also experiencing considerable hardships from a young age.
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Noah has been through it all, with her trauma taking a toll on both her physical and mental health. All the while, she has had to deal with being the sister of one of the biggest artists on the planet. Music has been instrumental in Noah’s healing process, though that, too, can prove triggering sometimes. “It’s extremely healing to be able to hear it back and pinpoint exactly what I was talking about, [and] I feel like this was really the first time I’d ever fallen in love with music of my own,” she told The Line of Best Fit. “But sometimes it’s a bit difficult for me to listen back to certain songs, especially with these songs specifically. I feel like they’re a bit triggering to me at times.” Here’s a look at tragic details about Noah Cyrus.
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She struggled with growing up in Miley Cyrus’ shadow
Noah Cyrus’ father, Billy Ray Cyrus, has been at the center of multiple controversies, with some accusing him of not doing enough to protect his kids from the perils of celebrity. As the star of “Hannah Montana,” Miley Cyrus experienced colossal fame at an incredibly young age. As tough as it was on Miley, this level of notoriety also affected her younger sister. “I had a hard time with people coming up to me and saying, ‘Are you Miley Cyrus’ little sister?’ or ‘Are you Hannah Montana’s little sister?'” Noah told Rolling Stone. “I did not like that.” As such, she would tell people that she wasn’t related to Miley.
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As Noah revealed to NPR, the public viewing her solely as Miley’s little sibling effectively robbed her of an identity. Accordingly, this made her feel that nobody cared about her when she was a child. But Noah has made the stunning transformation from Miley Cyrus’ sister to musician in her own right, with her flair for creativity playing a vital role in helping her cultivate her own unique identity.
These days, she’s not so upset about having a superstar big sister. “Something that really hurt me as a child was that I was stripped of my identity,” she told iNews in 2022. “I had no name, at all. But as I’ve grown as a musician, especially in the past three years, I would say that bothered me less and less.”
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Noah Cyrus spent her younger years ‘hiding from the world’
Being born into a famous family might sound like a dream, but Noah Cyrus’ experience wasn’t easy. From an early age, she was bullied both by kids at school and people on the internet. Understandably, this took a major toll on her. “Whether you’re well-known or not, it still f***ing hurts somebody so bad to read the s*** that I’ve been reading since I was so young,” Cyrus told tmrw (via E! News). “So many people get that every day, and it’s so f***ed up, man.” She would retreat to her bedroom to try to escape the noise, but this didn’t fix everything. “Being in my room with the lights off, hiding from the world, that’s not a way to live for such a young girl,” she said.
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In a 2017 chat with Refinery29, Cyrus, then aged 17, opened up about online bullying and why she’d disabled all Instagram comments. “I was getting really depressed from them, and hurt, and would cry for hours over things,” she said. “It was killing me every time I read something slightly hurtful, and I just couldn’t take it anymore.” The decision upset her fans, as Cyrus had no other way to talk to them, leading to her feeling selfish. Eventually, she decided to give turning comments back on a chance as a way to stay close to her fans.
Noah Cyrus struggled with addiction
At 18, Noah Cyrus was offered Xanax by her boyfriend at the time. Initially, she agreed to start taking the drug as a way of bonding with him, quickly realizing she was surrounded by people who could easily supply her with the drug. But soon, she found that Xanax was numbing her inner turmoil. “Once I felt that it was possible to silence things out for a second and numb your pain, it was over,” Cyrus told Rolling Stone. It would be the start of a long and difficult struggle with substance misuse, which reached its pinnacle during the pandemic in 2020.
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Her addiction began to manifest outwardly, as she found it near-impossible to keep her eyes open in public. During a TV appearance in 2020, she kept falling asleep. “It just kind of becomes this dark pit, bottomless pit,” she said. After this point, she realized that she needed to seek help and by December 2020 she began her recovery process.
In an interview with Zane Lowe, Cyrus opened up about her recovery process. “And when I had just lost all hope and all faith and all … strength to, like, keep going is when I just broke down and asked for help,” she said. “Where for so long, I had been denying, denying, denying, and pushing away, where I finally just said, ‘I cannot lie to you anymore.'” She began seeing a therapist and psychiatrist, who helped her recover.
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Noah Cyrus has lived with depression and anxiety
At a young age, Noah Cyrus began struggling with depression and anxiety. In 2018, she released her debut EP, “Good Cry,” in which she sang about her mental health issues. On the two-year anniversary of the EP’s release, Cyrus took to Instagram (via People) to discuss the dark place she was in at the time of recording. “Putting this ep out and going on tour during one of the most depressive times in my life was so hard,” she wrote. “Every day felt like lifting 100lb weights just to get out of bed … at 18 i didn’t think i was going to be here for a 20th birthday soon to be 21.” She acknowledged that her mental health is an ongoing struggle, and she’s coming to terms with having good days and bad days.
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Adjusting to experiencing feelings of happiness was difficult for Cyrus at first, as she was so accustomed to being unhappy. “I’m the kind of person that feels a bit uncomfortable around things that aren’t sad,” she told The Line of Best Fit. “I think that’s something that I’m actually working on … being more comfortable when I’m feeling happy [and] I can live in this moment right now.”
In 2019, she partnered with the Seize the Awkward campaign to help alleviate the stigma of mental illness. Speaking to Billboard, she said that she hoped her efforts would not only encourage her fans to seek help for themselves, but to support others as well.
She regrets not being there when her grandmother died
In August 2020, Noah Cyrus’ maternal grandmother, Loretta Finley, died. It was a tragic turn in an already challenging year for Cyrus. “It was a very long, emotional month … It was really difficult watching my grandma in that situation with being in the ICU for over a month,” she told The Line of Best Fit. “Leaving the state knowing that when I do go back she won’t be there was also very hard for me.”
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As a result of being in the throes of addiction, Cyrus wasn’t there for her grandmother when she died, something that caused intense feelings of guilt. “I was there physically, but emotionally, I was not there. I couldn’t be,” she told Rolling Stone. “That was my big eye-opener … I was scared, and I realized that all the people that I love and all the people that I need, I was the one pushing them away.”
In her sit-down with Zane Lowe, she discussed feeling a profound sense of anger at herself for not being able to provide her grandmother and grieving mother, Tish Cyrus, with emotional support in her last days. In time, she was able to let go of her guilt by being open about her struggles; eventually, she forgave herself. She later wrote “Loretta’s Song” in tribute to her grandmother. Speaking to NPR, she spoke of grappling with the idea of mortality in the aftermath of her loss, particularly the thought that she would also lose her mother someday.
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Noah Cyrus has had suicidal thoughts
For many years and starting when she was just a kid, Noah Cyrus received a lot of flak online for having mental health issues. Speaking to L’officiel in 2018, she called out folks to try to stigmatize those who are struggling with mental illness. “A lot of people like to judge you, and make fun of you on the Internet, and people make you feel crazy whenever you’re in a depression or having anxiety or having a panic attack,” she said. “It’s about that and being sad and having your emotions and not being able to ignore the feelings you’re having.”
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When she was just 11, which was also the age at which outlets started publishing articles about her, Cyrus began experiencing suicidal thoughts. Opening up in an Instagram Story (via Page Six), she revealed that such ideation was precipitated by the aforementioned bullying from online trolls. When Cyrus announced her engagement to fashion designer Pinkus in 2023, the trolls started on her again, making fun of appearance, which triggered memories of her past struggles. “I’ve been reminded again today how deeply f***ed the internet is,” she wrote, “and how it turned me against myself and lead [sic] myself to believe I should kill myself, wasn’t worth living, ended up suicidal and depending on drugs.”
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She was in a toxic relationship
In her 2022 interview with iNews, Noah Cyrus opened up about surviving a toxic relationship. Discussing her song “Lonely,” she explained that it was inspired by misusing Xanax during lockdown. Despite being with her partner at the time, she felt very much on her own. “I was lonely, although I wasn’t by myself,” she said. “I was in a relationship where we were both co-dependent on each other and on substances. That causes a really unhealthy relationship.”
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She had previously written about a toxic relationship in her 2019 song “July.” Speaking to the Evening Standard, she hinted at the relationship, which lasted two years, becoming abusive. She discussed being verbally belittled by her partner, which had a detrimental effect on her sense of worth. “A lot of hurtful words were thrown that have stuck with me,” she said. “That’s what inspired that song — me wondering if all those nasty things were true. My vision of myself has been destroyed because I believed what others say about me so much.”
Noah Cyrus has dated a few celebs, including Lil Xan and Tana Mongeau, so it’s unclear which of her exes she is referring to. However, Cyrus began dating Lil Xan in 2018 and following a breakup that year, was spotted with her ex again in April 2020. Lil Xan struggled with a Xanax addiction for many years; after quitting cold turkey in 2019, he later suffered a relapse and went to rehab in 2022.
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Noah Cyrus’ friend, XXXTentacion, was killed
Noah Cyrus collaborated with XXXTentacion in 2017, releasing the song “Again.” The two became close and Cyrus regarded the rapper as a friend. The following year, XXXTentacion was approached by two masked men while leaving a motorcycle dealership in Florida; he was fatally shot and robbed of $50,000. He was 20.
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Cyrus was devastated over the loss. In a since deleted Instagram post (via Capital FM), she paid tribute to XXXTentacion, writing, “I am so lucky to have called you a friend and to have a beautiful song with your voice, name and lyrics in it.” Her post was later criticized due to the rapper’s history of domestic violence allegations. But Cyrus, it seems, only saw the best of XXXTentacion. Shortly after his death, she discussed her pain with Firstpost. “He was such a good friend to me,” she said. “I love him so much. I only want to bring life to his name. He had been trying to better himself and I love him so much, so love long live Jahseh.”
In 2023, three men were found guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery, and jailed for life for killing the rapper. A fourth man, who helped prosecutors by identifying the killers and testifying in court, was jailed for two years.
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She has struggled with body dysmorphia
Around the time she reached puberty, Noah Cyrus began struggling with body dysmorphia, which is a disorder characterized by preoccupation with one’s appearance. Those with the disorder may constantly find flaws in their appearances that are undetectable to everyone else. Studies show that seeing idealized images on social media can exacerbate body dysmorphia and related eating disorders. In the case of Cyrus, who developed body dysmorphia at 13, the disorder was precipitated by both social media and headlines that discussed her appearance.
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It prevented her from being able to go outside and have fun with her peers. “I just could not look in a mirror,” she told NPR, “and my eyes would water and I would cry and I’d tell my mom how much I hate myself and how ugly I feel and how I just feel like this speck in the universe that didn’t matter and that the universe didn’t care to hear from me.”
Recovering from the trauma of having her appearance dissected and analyzed is an ongoing process. “One picture even became a meme,” she told The Telegraph. “People don’t realize their words carry so much weight. I am working so hard every single day just to undo the damage.” In 2021, Noah revealed that her role on “American Horror Story” had helped her address her body dysmorphia. “It was so much pain for such a little body,” she wrote on Instagram (via BuzzFeed). “But something about the show gave me comfort.”
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Tish Cyrus allegedly stole her daughter’s boyfriend
Tish Cyrus and Dominic Purcell’s fast-moving relationship appeared wholesome at first. The couple wed in the summer of 2023, and while Miley Cyrus was a bridesmaid, Noah Cyrus was nowhere to be seen. Soon enough, some shady rumors emerged.
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In March 2024, insiders claimed that Purcell had been dating Noah Cyrus prior to getting with her mom. “Noah and Dominic were seeing each other in a friends with benefits way, off and on,” a source told People. “They stopped seeing each other and then Tish started something up … Tish knew he had been seeing Noah.” Sources also told Us Weekly that Tish and Noah hadn’t spoken since the former got with Purcell.
Tish didn’t invite Noah to her wedding, leading to speculation that the mother and daughter were in the midst of an ugly feud. “[Tish] thought it would cause a scene and drama,” an insider told Entertainment Tonight. However, they added that Noah’s supposed history with Purcell had been exaggerated by the press. It was later claimed that Tish and Noah’s relationship was broken beyond repair. By August 2024, however, the two were reportedly in the process of reconciling. “It’s been a slow burn and has been very up and down the last several months, but Noah has been more open to the idea of having Tish in her life again,” a source told Us Weekly in August 2024. This report came about a week after the mother and daughter were photographed in Encino together.
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If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, mental health, or an eating disorder, or may be the victim of domestic abuse, contact the relevant resources below:
