Firerose Says Billy Ray Cyrus 'Strategically Isolated' Her From 'Everyone in My Life' During 'Abusive' Marriage: 'I Was Threatened and Raged At'

Firerose is turning the pain of her past into a new chapter — and a new collection of music.

During an exclusive interview with OK!, the singer opens up about her healing journey following her tumultuous and allegedly "abusive" marriage to Billy Ray Cyrus, revealing she has spent the past two years learning to trust herself again, reclaim her voice and transform her experience into art.

That process is at the center of her new music, including "Phoenix,” an anthem she wrote about rising from seemingly impossible circumstances.

"With my faith, which is a huge part of my life, I just leaned into my faith and just found the strength within me that I didn't know was even there," she says. "And have just been pouring it into my songs."

But before Firerose could fully reclaim her voice, she says she had to find it again.

"I was very strategically isolated from everyone in my life," she alleges of her marriage to Cyrus. "My closest friends, who I would have safely confided in of what was happening, but I was threatened and raged at [if I made] a call."

"I suddenly wasn't allowed to leave my house where I lived with my abuser for years," she adds.

Firerose's allegations are part of the bitter fallout from her seven-month marriage to Cyrus. The pair first connected years earlier after meeting around the time of Hannah Montana and later collaborated musically, releasing "New Day" together in 2021. Their relationship became romantic after Cyrus' separation from his longtime wife, Tish Cyrus, and they announced their engagement in 2022 before marrying in October 2023.

Billy Ray filed for divorce in May 2024, citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct and seeking an annulment on the grounds that he claimed his consent to the marriage had been obtained by fraud. Their divorce was finalized in August 2024.

The split quickly became a public battle, with both sides making allegations of abuse.

Billy Ray denied Firerose's allegations and accused her of verbally, emotionally and physically abusing him. He also accused her of conducting a "campaign" to isolate him from his family, including daughters Miley Cyrus and Noah Cyrus, in court documents.

Firerose now offers a sharply different account of the isolation she says she experienced, noting years of being “manipulated and gaslit” caused her to question her own instincts.

“If you've been manipulated and gaslit for years into believing that somehow you can't trust yourself because, of course, your instincts are telling you something's really wrong and you're being abused,” she says.

“And so to come out of that and to be like, ‘Well, I know what I experienced, but the person that I was supposed to believe this whole time was lying to me,’” she continues. “And it's just such a mind warp.”

For Firerose, healing required more than simply leaving the relationship. She credits “a lot of prayer and therapy and beautiful friends and true love” with helping her begin to heal from the trauma.

“And so there's been this very powerful kind of transformation of all the pain into purpose,” she mentions. “And I'm living that right now.”

That transformation has also informed the way she talks about the public fallout from her marriage.

Firerose says the narrative surrounding their split became what she describes as a “full-blown smear campaign,” arguing that her ex-husband's public platform made the situation particularly intimidating.

"Most smear campaigns are to neighbors and friends and family and the church and the community," she says. "Mine happened to be my abuser had a global megaphone, so it was much more widespread and therefore much more intimidating to then, like, say, ‘No, that was not me?’"

Her comments come after Billy Ray publicly accused her of isolating him from his family during their divorce proceedings. In a June 2024 court filing, he alleged that Firerose had been conducting a campaign to isolate him from his family and claimed she had blocked at least one of his daughters from contacting him.

Firerose characterizes that broader public narrative differently, describing what she calls "DARVO" — "deny, attack, reverse victim and offender" — as a tactic used by abusers.

"I think it's really important that people understand what DARVO is," she says. "Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender is a classic tactic used by narcissistic abusers to literally invert the truth in a way that is often — and in my case suddenly was — a full-blown smear campaign."

"I just — I guess I feel like it's such a classic playbook," she acknowledges. "So in that way, I didn't have to go into the nitty-gritty and explain, you know, obviously this lie was told about me, this lie — it was just more like, ‘This is who I actually am and I'm still here.’"

Firerose has also publicly released recordings and other documentation from the relationship, including audio that captured a heated exchange between the former couple. Billy Ray acknowledged the audio recording at the time while maintaining his own account of the relationship.

And Firerose says what the public has heard so far represents only a small portion of what she says she has.

“I have this kind of overwhelming amount of evidence of what I survived,” she tells OK!. “And I've only shared a tiny fraction of that because obviously it's very vulnerable to share.”

Firerose also admits the circumstances of the relationship were complicated by what she describes as a significant age and power imbalance.

“I was 22 years old when my abuser began grooming me, and he was over twice my age,” she explains. “So the power dynamic was so extreme.”

She says understanding that dynamic has helped her make sense of what happened and explain it to other survivors.

“I want to be that light at the end of the tunnel so that people can, especially young women, can look and be like, ‘She got through it. I can too,’” she declares.

That message of survival is perhaps most clearly reflected in “Phoenix,” which Firerose describes as an "anthem" for anyone who has had to "rise up from something that seems insurmountable."

"It seems impossible. And, like, how am I going to get through this?" she reflects.

The answer, for Firerose, became music.

“You know, I will rise. I will rise up from these flames,” she says of the song's message.

The accompanying music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, visually mirrors that transformation. Firerose says the video moves from darkness and isolation into sunlight and freedom.

“We really show in the video the visual representation of what it feels like to be silenced, to be isolated, to be abused,” the artist shares. “And then all of a sudden I'm out in the field, surrounded by beautiful sunlight and free.”

Chris, whose credits include videos for artists including Rihanna and Britney Spears, reached out to Firerose after hearing her songs.

“He's like, ‘I've listened to all your music, and I would love to direct your next video,’” she recalls. “And so it was just this beautiful, almost meant-to-be moment.”

“Phoenix” isn't the only song emerging from Firerose's healing process. She has also been writing and recording tracks including “Love Knows How,” “Do Not Be Afraid” and “Shining Armor (Rise Again).”

Together, the songs represent what she describes as a reconnection with her artistic identity after years of feeling disconnected from her own voice.

“There's so much to give in terms of what I'm pouring out in my lyrics and my songs and the videos,” she spills.

As for her own life beyond her tumultuous marriage, Firerose says romance isn't currently her priority.

“I haven't opened my heart to anyone. I haven't been ready to in that way,” she admits.

Instead, she is pouring her energy into her music, podcast, friends, faith and her life in Los Angeles.

“That's really like the love of my life right now,” she says of her creative work. “And that's where all my love is being poured into.”

But Firerose hasn't closed the door on love forever, as she believes it's "really important that abuse doesn't end your ability to love."

“Absolutely, I believe that God has a wonderful man in my future,” she adds. “It's just not where my focus is right now. I'm absolutely open to [marriage again] because I know that love is the most precious thing that we have here on this earth."

For now, however, Firerose is focused on building a life in which she gets to decide what comes next.

“I've never been more grateful to be me and to be alive and to be free and to be able to use my voice again,” she expresses.

And that voice — once something she says she was forced to suppress — has become the foundation of her next chapter.

“I just — I want to be that light at the end of the tunnel,” she concludes. “You know, this isn't going to be the end of me. This is just the beginning. I'm going to rise like a phoenix.”