Well, it took one week for Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose’s divorce to go from “messy in a funny way” to “dear god, this whole thing is depressing.” To recap, Billy Ray married Firerose, an allegedly 36-year-old Australian musician, last fall. Their marriage only lasted about eight months and Billy Ray now wants the whole thing annulled because of what he claims is “inappropriate marital conduct” on Firerose’s behalf. He’s also accusing her of running up his credit cards and only being with him in the first place because of his money. Well, Firerose has now filed her own divorce papers and her side of the story is pretty bad. Apparently, she carries the BRCA1 gene mutation so she sought a double mastectomy. She claims that Billy Ray and his family made her life hellish before the surgery.
Firerose claims her estranged husband Billy Ray Cyrus filed for divorce last month just one day before she scheduled to undergo a preventative double mastectomy. The Australian musician, 36, offered new insight into the final days of her marriage to Cyrus, 62, in court documents filed in Tennessee on June 14 and obtained by PEOPLE.
Firerose was diagnosed as a carrier of the BRCA1 gene mutation in early 2020, which means she has an increased likelihood of developing breast cancer, according to the complaint. After having an MRI in March, the singer’s doctors “highly recommended” she undergo a double mastectomy and reconstruction, the first surgery for which she scheduled for May 24. But as the date approached, things at home became “chaos,” and Firerose claimed that Cyrus “continuously launched verbal assaults” at her while threatening to kick her out of their home and file for divorce, according to the complaint.
She alleged in the complaint that she “walked on eggshells” around her country singer husband, and that he placed her “into an emotional and psychological prison.”
“When Wife would attempt to voice certain concerns, Husband would often call her a ‘selfish f—ing bitch’ and continually alleged that she was using him,” the complaint said. “With Wife’s major surgery date looming, she was reasonably afraid to leave or seek any type of help because she feared that Husband would interfere with her surgery or her lengthy recovery at home.”
Firerose said she was eventually “ambushed” with divorce papers on May 23, less than 24 hours before she was set to undergo her surgery. She also accused Cyrus’s brother and sister-in-law of banging on her bedroom door for three-and-a-half hours in an attempt to get her to leave the house she shared with Cyrus, even though they were the ones who allegedly volunteered to take her to her surgery and help her recover.
Following the couple’s October 2023 wedding, Cyrus paid for Firerose’s health insurance, and “was prepared” to pay for any surgery expenses that weren’t covered, according to the complaint. “Wife relied on Husband’s promises to pay for her surgery, and Husband has now repudiated that promise,” the documents read. “On the day Wife was set to get her surgery, she was instead searching for a place to live and under a significant amount of emotional distress.”
Elsewhere in the filing, Firerose accused Cyrus of “extreme verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, and said he allegedly has substance abuse issues that make him “unpredictable and volatile.”
Yiiikes. I believe Firerose’s side, honestly. I believe that Billy Ray probably had a huge meltdown specifically because of her health issues and preventative mastectomy. Many, many men can’t handle it when their wives or partners are ill or need major surgery. I also totally believe that Billy Ray probably has some substance abuse issues. That’s been the undercurrent of gossip about the Cyrus family for a while, even before Firerose came around. Deep sigh… filing for divorce the day before your wife goes in for a double mastectomy is really, really bad.
Billy Ray also gave some new information to the court, claiming that he recently learned that Firerose was “conducting a campaign to isolate” him from his family and that Firerose blocked at least one of his daughters from contacting his phone. I sort of believe that too? Am I being gullible or what? It’s perfectly possible that Billy Ray mistreated Firerose AND that she was working an angle.
Photos courtesy of Billy Ray’s Instagram.