#Miley Cyrus Says Liam Hemsworth Marriage Was ‘One Last Attempt To Save Myself’

Miley Cyrus is really opening up about the reasons behind her marriage to Liam Hemsworth — and lots, lots more about her life.

The 28-year-old pop star is on the media circuit promoting her new album Plastic Hearts right now, and on Friday morning that included a brand new interview dropping over at Rolling Stone, where she’s also posing topless for their upcoming January issue. Sexy! And as it turns out, Miley is ready to bare all in more than one way!

Related: Here’s How Liam REALLY Feels About Miley’s Talk About Their Marriage…

The Wrecking Ball singer covers quite a bit of ground in the far-ranging feature, but it’s everything about Liam that we’re really paying attention to here. After all, this is far from the first time this week that she’s made headlines for being VERY candid about her ex-husband.

In Rolling Stone, the actress actually confessed to her reasoning behind marrying Liam in the first place. As you’ll no doubt recall, the couple was together for nearly a decade before getting hitched, so it’s not like they needed the union to be “official” to stay together or anything. But the couple was moved to get married after their Malibu house burned down in 2018 — a major event that seriously affected both of them for a long time after.

Miley opened up about that decision, revealing that it “felt really good at the time” for her to be “playing house” with the hunky Australian actor. But the fairy tale wasn’t meant to be, and it didn’t last after they made things official (below):

“The fire did what I couldn’t do for myself. It removed me from what no longer was serving its purpose. And then as you drown, you reach for that lifesaver and you want to save yourself. I think that’s really what, ultimately, getting married was for me. One last attempt to save myself.”

Whoa!

In fact, as the Disney Channel alum is quick to note, those from the outside looking in had no idea that her life at the time was remarkably unfulfilling. She explained more:

“A couple of years ago, it looked like I was living some fairy tale. It really wasn’t. At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable or ever going to get me to my fullest potential and purpose. I was way more off my path at that time than any of the times before where my sanity was being questioned.”

Wow! It takes maturity and self-awareness to walk away from all that, for sure. And now that she has, Miley feels like she’s on a better path, which includes a commitment to sobriety and a renewed focus on making art.

Related: Miley One Of Many Stars To Applaud Elliot Page For Coming Out As Transgender!

She touched on both of those things elsewhere in the interview, by the way, as you’ll see (below).

On writing Slide Away while going through her breakup from Liam:

“I was still in my relationship, I was still living in my house. That’s why [I sang], ‘I want my house in the hills.’ I wanted out of there, and it says, ‘I don’t want the whiskey and pills.’ I didn’t want to maintain that lifestyle. It’s really weird because I can never figure out what comes first: art or life? Does art imitate life or life imitate art? Or do you speak it into existence? Am I that powerful that when I write something, I become it? I think of making music sometimes as a sacrifice because you end up writing songs that can hurt people, that can hurt one person but make you feel less alone. It’s like, is it worth it? Is it worth writing music that’s so honest?”

On her newfound “healthy perspective” and her decision to get sober:

“I learned a lot about what I can and cannot be for someone else and what I can and cannot accept for myself. One of the reasons I got sober was I had just turned 26, and I said, ‘I got to pull my shit together before I’m 27, because 27 is the time you cross over that threshold into living or dying a legend.’ I didn’t want to not make it through being 27. I didn’t want to join that club. Probably about halfway into 26, I got sober. Then by 27, [November 2019] I was pretty much fully sober.”

On struggling to remain sober during the coronavirus pandemic:

“It was really a struggle. Mental health and anxiety and all that. I lost myself there, and now I’m back on five weeks … I try to not be naive. Things f**king happen. But from sitting here with you right now, I would say it would have to be a cold day in hell for me to relapse on drugs. … Still, I take mental and physical health a lot more seriously than I ever did before. I have been focusing on sobriety as I wanted to wake up 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. If I’ve ever learned to balance myself and to not take it too far, I would. But so far any time I’ve messed with that, it hasn’t gotten me what I want. I’m really good at quitting things. I have a weed machine right there. I’ve never smoked out of it, and it’s full. [If] I had a cocaine machine, it might not be full. That’s the thing. I’m really not an addict. You can have that. You’re good.”

On her many career transitions, from Hannah Montana until today:

“I had to evolve because Hannah was larger than life, larger than me. I felt like I was never going to amount to the success of Hannah Montana. … Hannah was not a character. That wasn’t what the show is about. It was about a normal girl with a f**king wig on. Everything was always in me. The concept of the show, it’s me. I’ve had to really come to terms with that and not be third-person about it.”

On channeling her sexuality through her work as she continues to evolve:

“The music was driving it, but all those things from that era, especially with [2013’s] Bangerz, the pop-culture moments almost eclipse the music itself. … I remember comments saying, ‘Why the f**k do you distract everybody with getting naked and shaking your ass when you’re a f**king talented-ass singer?’ … I love show business. I love entertainment. I love pop culture. I love unforgettable moments. I think there was a balance of me just loving making big media moments but also a sadness in the fact that I would think, ‘Did anyone even hear my song?’ When you think of [2013’s] Wrecking Ball, you don’t think of the pain. You don’t think of me looking directly into the camera, breaking the wall, crying, reaching out. You remember me getting naked, and I don’t know whose fault that is. I don’t know if that’s mine or the way that our brains are programmed to think sexuality, for lack of a better word, trumps art.”

On the intense public focus on her sexuality as a teenager and its aftermath:

“In the past two years, I think, we’ve made some big progress, especially toward women and bodies. I don’t even know if you really can slut-shame now. Is that even a thing? The media hasn’t really slut-shamed me in a long time. At one point I was like, ‘Yo, when I’m 16 and you’re circling my boobs and s**t like that . . . I’m the bad guy?’ I think people are starting to go, ‘Wait, wait, wait. That was f**ked up.’ They’re starting to know who the enemy and who the victim was there. My dad ignored it because it’s just like any teenage girl and their dad’s like, ‘Let’s please not have this conversation.’ My mom, I think it made her really angry. I think even she felt it could be distracting from what I was doing. She knew the voice and talents that I could showcase. She was like, ‘What the f**k? You have the biggest song. Can you just make it about the song? Why do you have to make it about being a stripper?’”

On finally settling in as an artist focusing only on the music with Plastic Hearts:

“I guess I’m just in love with the fact that for once it feels like it’s really focused on the music. I’m so settled in what I’m doing and who I am. All I’ve ever wanted is respect as an artist and to have pride in what I make. I think that comes with the dedication and diligence that I really put in the effort. I put in the work. You get to a point where numbers and headlines don’t do the same chemical reaction to your brain they do in the beginning. There’s actually a release of dopamine that gets dumped into your skull when people are raving about you or when you walk by a magazine stand and you’re on every cover. Finding the balance I have now has made it much easier for me. It completely ate up that fear and spit it out.”

On looking towards the future and possibly leaving a legacy:

“I want to lay down a new stone for a path for the next generation of artists, philanthropists, the way that Debbie Harry has done for me. I’d like to be known as someone that created something that didn’t quite exist, or that I delivered something that no one knew that they needed or wanted, but when they had it felt that they couldn’t live without it. That’s what I would want as an artist … but I think it’s really hard talking about it because I’m still so here with so much left to do. I couldn’t really tell you how I’d want to be remembered because all the things that I’d hopefully be remembered for haven’t happened yet.”

See?! We weren’t kidding when she said she touched all her bases with this one!

Make sure to take a look at her scintillating cover and spread for the glossy (below):

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[Image via WENN/Avalon]