EXCLUSIVE: Miley Cyrus at Center of Fears She'll Relapse After Revealing the Horrific Move She Made to Convince Herself She Needed to Get Clean
Miley Cyrus has sparked a relapse scare with her latest sobriety admission.
May 28 2025, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
Miley Cyrus has confessed she "needed to fall one more time" in order to find sobriety – and friends now fear the 32-year-old pop star may be teetering on the edge once again due to the admission, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Flowers singer opened up during an emotional appearance on The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music 1, revealing that her 2020 Plastic Hearts era was marked by chaos, confusion, and a desperate act that helped her recognize how deep her problems ran.
"There were times in that section… I’m not proud of them," she admitted. "Definitely not my best moments, not some of my best work, any of that. But it all led me to writing Flowers, which then was some sort of key right into the lock of all healing."
Sources close to Cyrus also fear her family’s fracturing — including her highly publicized rift with father Billy Ray Cyrus, 62 — has left her emotionally raw, despite her career highs.
Fractured Family
Cyrus' rift with her dad also has pals fearing she'll fall of the wagon.
"Miley has done a lot of work on herself, but the fall-out with Billy Ray hit her harder than people realize and everyone is worried it could pushe her over the edge," our source said.
"Her admission she had to 'fall' again to get sober is also raising red flags.
"They fear she could use the Billy Ray fights as an excuse to have another 'fall' and get back to her party ways.
"They think she is showing she has a valid excuse to stop being sober by calling the times she fails to get clean 'falls.'
"She’s hurting. There’s a void there, and when she feels that pain, she goes inward — and that’s when the danger creeps in."
Another source added about her dad: "She's cut him out completely. They don't speak. It's a cold war. And when Miley gets into that mindset where she feels like she’s alone in the world, those old habits can whisper loud."
The pop star has said her career was saved by sobriety.
Cyrus, whose 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation earned her her first Grammy wins – Best Pop Solo Performance and Record of the Year – admitted sobriety was key to unlocking both her personal and professional breakthroughs.
"It's changed my entire life," she said.
Still, the singer hinted that her lowest moments weren’t just behind the scenes – they were instrumental.
"I think somewhere inside of me, I needed maybe to hold a trophy and just feel for a moment that I have something that I can hold in my hands that feels like a true achievement," she said of her Grammy win. "And so at the Grammys, that's why I went, it was actually for healing."
Despite the triumph, those around her remain concerned.
"People saw her on that stage with that big smile and thought everything was perfect," a longtime friend said. "But she nearly didn’t even go. The anxiety almost kept her home."
Cyrus confirmed the doubt herself.
Frank Admission
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She has been brutally candid about her journey to get clean.
"There was somewhere that I was avoiding this, the fact that it did matter to me somewhere," she said. "And so once I received my Grammy, I was like, look, when you Google me, it says 'Miley Cyrus, a Grammy Award-winning artist.'"
Privately, insiders say tension within the Cyrus family has created other emotional whiplash.
Following her parents’ 2022 divorce and Billy Ray's swift engagement to 35-year-old singer Firerose, Cyrus reportedly distanced herself from him.
"She saw it as betrayal," a source claimed. "Her dad moved on too fast, and Miley didn’t take it well."
Cyrus is also said to definitely not be a fan of Billy Ray's new relationship with man-eater Elizabeth Hurley, as RadarOnline.com recently revealed.
With some friends "walking on eggshells," according to one insider, the fear now is that the singer may romanticize the past chaos that inspired her biggest hit.
"She says she needed to fall to write Flowers – but falling again? That's what everyone’s terrified of."
