Miley Cyrus has opened up about her decade-old conflict with Sinéad O’Connor, admitting the late singer’s public criticism and their ensuing fallout still weighs on her.
The dispute began in 2013, after the release of Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball music video. The video – which includes a close-up of Cyrus, 32, with a tear rolling down her face – drew comparisons to O’Connor’s iconic visuals in Nothing Compares 2 U.
However, it became most infamous for featuring the 20-year-old singer swinging naked on a wrecking ball and provocatively licking a sledgehammer.
O’Connor responded with an open letter, posted to her website, warning Cyrus about the dangers of the industry.
“The music business doesn’t give a s**t about you, or any of us,” she wrote. The Irish artist said her letter came in the “spirit of motherliness and with love,” expressing concern that Cyrus had been convinced it was “cool” to appear nude and sexually charged in the video.
“They will prostitute you for all you are worth,” O’Connor warned. “They’ll make you think it’s 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.”
At the time, Cyrus responded with mockery on X (then Twitter), comparing O’Connor’s mental health struggles to Amanda Bynes, who was undergoing psychiatric treatment.
Cyrus shared screenshots of O’Connor’s tweets seeking psychiatric help with the caption: “Before there was Amanda Bynes… There was…”
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Looking back now, the 32-year-old admitted that she deeply regrets how she reacted: “I responded in a way that I would never as an adult, but that was also an adult talking to a young person.”
While acknowledging O’Connor’s concern, Cyrus explained that her experience in the industry was very different.
“I would say that feels like her experience being reflected on to me, but that’s not my experience,” she told The New York Times, adding: “My experience was not that the music industry didn’t care about me.”
Cyrus credits her early exposure to the industry – thanks to her father Billy Ray Cyrus and godmother Dolly Parton – for giving her a unique understanding of its workings.
“It’s really hard to train yourself to know what to expect … but I already had the handbook because they did the same thing to my dad and to Dolly,” she said.
Cyrus went on: “I understand the business I’m in. I’m in the record business. So I understand that I am setting myself up to become merchandise.”
Speaking previously on Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions), Cyrus admitted she was “deeply hurt” by O’Connor’s comments, especially as they came from “another woman” in the industry.
“I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in,” she said. “I was also only 20 years old.”
O’Connor, a fierce critic of the music industry and an outspoken activist, died in July 2023 at age 56.
Her death was later attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.