Miley Cyrus reveals deep regret about Sinead O’Connor spat
Their music videos drew some comparison.
Miley Cyrus has reflected on her public fallout with the late Sinéad O’Connor and said the interaction still ‘bums her out’.
The spat began in 2013, when O’Connor took aim at Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball music video – which had sparked comparisons to Nothing Compares 2 U.
Over a decade on, the Something Beautiful hitmaker regrets hitting out in the way she did but explained to The New York Times why she was so hurt at the time.
In Wrecking Ball’s emotive moments, the camera focuses on Cyrus’ face as she sings with a single tear running down her face – her buzzed hair very much giving Nothing Compares.
However, the infamous video is most remembered as it saw a then 20-year-old Cyrus swinging naked from a wrecking ball and licking a sledgehammer.
At the time, O’Connor shared an open letter of warning to the Disney star, writing: ‘The music business doesn’t give a s**t about you, or any of us.’
She posted the letter on her website, stating it was fuelled by the ‘spirit of motherliness and with love.’
‘I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way “cool” to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos.
She continued: ‘They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted … and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, ‘they’ will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.’
Cyrus took to X – then Twitter – to mock O’Connor’s mental health, comparing her to Amanda Bynes, who was in rehab at the time.
O’Connor was incredibly vocal about how she felt about the music industry (Photo by Getty Images) She believed Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball was a manipulation of the young artist (Picture: Vevo/Miley Cyrus/Youtube)The Hannah Montana actress shared screenshots of O’Connor’s jumbled tweets asking for help finding a psychiatrist with the caption: ‘Before there was Amanda Bynes… There was…’
O’Connor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder as well as being agoraphobic.
‘I responded in a way that I would never as an adult, but that was also an adult talking to a young person,’ Cyrus, now 32, told The New York Times.
While she acknowledged this misstep, she explained her experience of fame is incredibly different to that of others.
‘I would say that feels like her experience being reflected on to me, but that’s not my experience,’ she reflected. ‘My experience was not that the music industry didn’t care about me.’
Cyrus explained that her exposure to the industry came at a young age, partly due to her father Billy Ray Cyrus’ fame as well as her godmother Dolly Parton.
Cyrus grew up in the spotlight with father Billy Ray Cyrus (Picture: Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images) She also was guided by family friend Dolly Parton (Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)‘It’s really hard to train yourself to know what to expect, everything that fame can bring but I already had the handbook because they did the same thing to my dad and to Dolly,’ she continued.
‘I understand the business I’m in, I’m in the record business. When I sign a contract, they’re buying records that they wish to sell, so I understand that I am setting myself up to become merchandise. I’ve committed to them that I want to not only bring success for myself but also to them. So I understand the music industry.’
Cyrus previously said it had ‘deeply hurt’ her to receive that backlash, particularly from ‘another woman’ in the industry.
‘I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in,’ she voiced in her ABC show Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions).
Cyrus still regrets the way she responded to O’Connor (Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TikTok) The Irish singer died two years ago (Picture: Andrew Chin/Getty Images)‘I was also only 20 years old,’ the Flowers hitmaker said. ‘So I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much and all that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea.’
Throughout her life, O’Connor was a vocal activist against the music industry, rejecting the advice of her label with her shaved head and combat boots.
While Cyrus may not have felt the pressures the Feel So Different singer rallied against, many others hailed her as a feminist icon.
O’Connor died on July 26, 2023, at the age of 56. It was later ruled that her cause of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.
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