Miley Cyrus Dedicates New Song ‘Secrets’ to Billy Ray Cyrus After Estrangement

Miley Cyrus dedicated her latest song to her father.

After years of rumored estrangement from dad Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley released her new track “Secrets” on Friday, Sept. 19, dedicating the emotional ballad to her father with a nod to their tension. 

“This song was written as a peace offering for someone I had lost for a time but always loved,” Miley, 32, wrote on Instagram. “In my experience, forgiveness and freedom are one and the same.”

She then clarified, “This song is for my dad.” 

The “Flowers” singer collaborated with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood for the track, thanking them for “bringing magic to the music.” 

In “Secrets,” Miley sings, “Hero/ Can I be your hero?/ Call off all your forces/ A white flag in the war.” 

She also sings, “Love is not a prison/ I’m not a guard, no/ So even when I’m holding you/ I won’t lock you up/ You can come and go as you want.”

The music video, which was filmed at the Million Dollar Theatre in Los Angeles, features Miley wearing stunning Iris Van Herpen Couture and Maison Margiela looks with flowing, windswept fabrics.

Billy Ray, 64, previously referenced the song in August, sharing on Instagram, “For my birthday, Miley gave me the gift of music and wrote me a song called Secrets and got my favorite musicians Fleetwood Mac to play on it! I love you Mile ❤️.”

In a June interview on Monica Lewinsky’s podcast, Miley opened up about the track, saying,  “I wrote this song about my dad, because I wanted him to tell me even though there were secrets, even though I didn’t really want to know. I wanted to be the one he felt safe enough to tell me the things that were damning and damaging to the family. I wanted him to think that as a middle child, I’m old enough that I could take some of that.”

In recent years, Miley has spoken about her evolving relationship with the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer. During an interview with David Letterman in 2024, the Hannah Montana alum said, “I’m grateful for being able to watch him ahead of me. He’s almost, like, given me this map, and there is a map of what to do and what not to do, and he’s been — he’s guided me on both,” later adding, “I also inherited the narcissism from my father.” 

However, in a May profile in The New York Times, Miley said that there was no longer any estrangement with her father. 

“I think timing is everything. As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents — because my mom really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard,” Miley said at the time. “And so I think I took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain.”

“But now that my mom is so in love with my stepdad, who I completely adore, and now that my dad, I see him finding happiness, too — I can love them both as individuals instead of as a parental pairing,” added Miley, referring to Billy Ray’s relationship with Elizabeth Hurley and mom Tish Cyrus‘ marriage to Dominic Purcell.

“I’m being an adult about it,” the Something Beautiful musician further explained. “At first it’s hard, because the little kid in you reacts before the adult in you can go, ‘Yes, that’s your dad, but that’s just another person that deserves to be in his bliss and to be happy.’ My child self has caught up.”

“Secrets” is a part of Miley’s Something Beautiful Deluxe — an expanded version of her album, which was originally released in May. The deluxe edition is available now.