Miley Cyrus Breaks Her Silence on Dolly Parton’s Death, Calling the Loss “Beyond What Feels Right To Share.”
· Thought Catalog
Updated 3 hours ago, August 26, 2026
Miley Cyrus has broken her silence on the death of Dolly Parton, her longtime friend, choosing to guard the closest parts of their bond even as she mourned it in public. “Our most sacred moments were private and they’ll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour & between our hearts,” Cyrus wrote in a tribute posted to Instagram.
The relationship ran deep and, as it turns out, ran in the family. Parton became Cyrus’s godmother around the time she was born, after Billy Ray Cyrus asked her to take the role. She often called Miley “one of my own,” and a 2024 Ancestry.com trace found the two are actually seventh cousins once removed, sharing an 18th-century Virginia ancestor.
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In her tribute, Cyrus framed her grief through the advice she believes Parton would have given her. Parton, she said, would want her to “feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong.” She pointed to their final talk as the sign of where her head is now: “One of our last conversations was about music and metamorphosis.”
She ended the note the way the relationship always ran, wide open: “We’re in this loss together and we will see her in all of the most beautiful things.”
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