Miley wanted to change for love but couldn’t

Miley Cyrus opened her heart and spoke without filters about how her public figure and artistic identity influenced – and in many cases interfered – in their sentimental life. In a recent interview for the Podcast “Every Single Album”, the star reflected on her turbulent relationship with actor Liam Hemsworth, and how her attempts to preserve that love story led her to modify essential aspects of herself.

He recalled that one of the most difficult moments was during the era “Bangerz”, her explosive album of 2013, when she and Hemsworth went through a separation. “When Liam and I separated for the first time with ‘Bangerz’, it was because it was as if I were a provocative and the subject was very sexualized,” Miley acknowledged. That stage marked a radical turn in his career, but also a break in his partner.

Some time later, with the launch of “Younger Now” in 2017, the singer adopted a more demure aesthetic and a more contained attitude, trying to reunite with Hemsworth from another place. “And then, for ‘Younger Now’ – the album – the reason why I played with that innocence was because I think it was a way of maintaining and staying (innocent),” he explained, evidencing the internal dilemma between his personal evolution and the desire to sustain a life as a couple.

With rawness, Miley confessed that he even tried to design a version of herself that was “compatible” with the stability he longed for: “If I am younger now, if I am less awake as this sexual woman in public, then this will be the way I can maintain a happy home.”

But that effort was also limited by its sobriety process, which at that time was not entirely consolidated. “I didn’t know how to do it completely because I was also trying to balance the issue of sobriety, since it was not yet sober,” he said. In that context, he clung to a more “pure” image: “And then I thought, well, ‘I am safe and I am clean and I am dressed in white and I am singing songs about nature,” he said. That construction, he said, sought to find “a personality that could maintain my personal life intact.”

However, that struggle for emotional balance was not simple. “It’s difficult,” he admitted, “because I am super open and I also have to be careful not to tell the things of others because I know, I say everything.”

Miley also put external pressure in perspective: “With all due respect, Liam was also part of other great franchises such as ‘Hunger Games’, and his brother is a Marvel superhero. So I also represented the family.”

In spite of everything, love was still a priority for her. “This time, my plan was not to want the relationship to fall apart. I wanted it to remain intact,” he shared. “And the reason why it didn’t work during ‘Bangerz’ was for that.”

The story between Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth began in 2010 during the filming of “The Last Song.” In 2012, when she was 19 years old and he 22, they fostered for the first time. What followed was a roller mountain of ruptures, reconciliations and a marriage that, despite love, did not resist.

Miley tried. He changed, he contained, looked for harmony. But, as she recognizes it, it was not enough.