Miley Cyrus is shedding some light on the complicated relationship she shares with dad Billy Ray Cyrus.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Cyrus, 32, discussed the price of fame, surpassing her father in success, and working to see her parents as people.

"I just try to be more compassionate to my parents, because I hate that for them," she said of the increased scrutiny her level of fame has brought. "And I mostly hate it for my siblings, because they didn't choose that kind of highlight on themselves." Cyrus' younger sister, Noah, is also a singer.

That scrutiny reached a fever pitch in recent years after the dissolution of her parents' marriage and a rumored rift between Miley and her father, who was briefly married to Australian singer Firerose and is now dating Elizabeth Hurley.

"Timing is everything," Cyrus said of repairing her relationship with her dad. "As I've gotten older, I'm respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents." Cyrus starred alongside her father in the Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana," which saw her play an international pop star, a premise which would later, with the help of the show, become her reality.

"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," she said, describing the resentment she felt after her parents' split in 2022. "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."

Tish Cyrus, Miley's mother, married actor Dominic Purcell in 2023.

"I'm being an adult about it," she said. "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."

Billy Ray Cyrus, whose "Achy Breaky Heart" skyrocketed to the top of the charts in the early 1990s, enjoyed a degree of success within country music, but nothing like that of his eldest daughter, who rose quickly from teen stardom.

"That has added a level of complexity within my family, for sure. I think it would be hard for anybody with a dream to see somebody else achieving theirs in a way that you see for yourself," Cyrus said. "I do think love conquered all. He can still find the pride in me. But it would be delusional for any of us to think that that doesn't add a level of complication to our already complicated dynamic."

Despite that complication, Cyrus says the line of credit she extends her father, who grew up in drastically different circumstances, will never run dry.

"I have a lot of grace for him. He grew up in severe poverty, not always having indoor bathrooms. He had rarely, if at all, gone to the dentist by the time he met my mom," she said. "I spent some of my life in Nashville, but most of it was in LA, in a safe neighborhood, and I just can't even compare our upbringings in any way, shape or form. So I definitely have a really compassionate place in my heart."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miley Cyrus opens up about repairing relationship with dad Billy Ray

Reporting by Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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