Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose’s Divorce War Explodes! Inside the Exes’ Allegations Against Each Other

Their wedding was nothing short of magical. After Billy Ray Cyrus exchanged vows with Firerose in October, the musicians described it as “the beautiful, joyous day that our two souls united as one in holy matrimony,” adding that it was “the most perfect, ethereal celebration of love we could have ever imagined.”

But just seven months later, it blew up spectacularly. Billy Ray, 62, filed for divorce in May, citing irreconcilable differences and “inappropriate marital conduct.” He also asked the court for an annulment on grounds of “fraud.” Firerose, 36, hit back with a filing of her own, kicking off weeks of back and forth accusations exposing a deeply troubled relationship rife with claims of abuse and manipulation. Then, on June 30, the Australian singer-songwriter gave a game-changing tell-all interview.

“When Billy decided to discard me, it was in a brutal way,” she shared, painting him as the husband from hell. “He’s an evil man.”

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose’s Bitter Battle

The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer allegedly had strict rules for his much younger third wife, whose real name is Johanna Rosie Hodges.

“I didn’t have a car. I was only allowed to go to the local chiropractor and allowed once a month to get my nails done … it was systematic isolation, and I couldn’t find the courage to leave,” Firerose claims of the mind games and torture she endured, adding that she was eventually allowed to use a vehicle and drive to see a therapist. “If I had to send a text, I had to read it out to him for permission. It was the same for email.”

She alleges Billy Ray also banned friends and family from visiting her. And things only got worse, she alleges. “He would shout at me at the top of his lungs … terrify me, yelling, ‘You stupid dumb f–king bitch, crazy whore.” He’d then become a different person, she claims, telling her things like, “‘You’re the love of my life, I can’t wait to marry you.’”

Then he’d give her the silent treatment for hours or even days. “I withdrew…I was afraid to talk,” Firerose says, adding that once she moved into his Franklin, Tennessee, home in 2022, Billy Ray isolated her “from every single person in my life,” except her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. Yet Firerose and Billy Ray still got engaged that summer.

Billy Ray and Firerose: He Said, She Said

These new allegations follow other shocking claims Firerose made in court documents last month. In a counter complaint filed on June 14, she accused the “Old Town Road” singer of “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse” and alleged that his “persistent drug use” made him “unpredictable and volatile.” She also said he forced her out of their home the same day she was supposed to undergo a preventative double mastectomy after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene, which puts her at a higher risk for breast cancer.

Billy Ray, however, has painted himself as the injured party. On June 17, in an amendment to his original complaint, he alleged that Firerose “had been conducting a campaign to isolate” him from his family by blocking communication with one of his daughters, whom he didn’t name. He also accused his ex of lying about her past marriages, her true last name, her parents’ identities and her real motive for exchanging vows, insisting she just wanted the Cyrus name to further her own career. In a June 24 filing, Billy Ray also branded her abuse claims “mind-boggling” and insisted that he, “in fact, has been abused” by Firerose — physically, verbally and emotionally — and that his manager witnessed it.

Billy Ray’s Tormented Exes

This isn’t Billy Ray’s first messy union. He and first wife Cindy Smith, a tobacco company sales rep, divorced in 1991 after five years of a marriage that began as “a nonstop party,” Billy Ray wrote in his 2013 memoir, Hillbilly Heart. Then came infidelity. “The sanctity of our circle, if you will, was broken,” he wrote.

In 1992, he had two children with two different women — son Christopher Cody, 32, with former girlfriend Kristin Luckey, and daughter Miley Cyrus, 31, with then-girlfriend Tish, whom he married the following year. (They had two more kids, Braison, 30, and Noah, 24; Billy Ray also adopted Tish’s two kids from a previous relationship, Brandi, 37, and Trace, 35.)

Billy Ray’s marriage to Tish, 57, was filled with “rough times,” she’s admitted.

“It was torture,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. After two previous splits and reconciliations — he filed for divorce in 2010; she filed in 2013 — Tish pulled the plug for good in 2022, revealing they hadn’t lived together in more than two years.

It was during this period that Billy Ray started seeing Firerose. “Every day, he told me, ‘I’m getting divorced,’ but he said it was complicated because of the kids and they had been married for so long,” Firerose says. “I just accepted everything he told me to be true. I would never, ever have entered into a relationship with a married man, but he was such a great manipulator.”

Billy Ray has made it clear he has more to tell. On the same day Firerose’s interview came out, he seemingly responded on Instagram. In one post, red flower petals rained down upon a flame and the word “FRAUD.” In another, he wrote, “Don’t believe I’ve ever heard the word LIAR this much on Sunday morning,” adding, “I’m sure very soon the truth will be revealed.”