In a candid interview on the Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky podcast, Miley Cyrus reflects on one of the most controversial chapters of her life and career. Best known in her early years as the wholesome star of Hannah Montana, Cyrus says the bold reinvention that accompanied her 2013 Bangerz era came at a deep personal cost. What the world saw as a rebellious breakout, Cyrus now reveals as a time marked by shame, family tension, and lost identity.
From Disney darling to public spectacle
By 2013, Miley Cyrus was no longer the bright-eyed teen Disney Channel viewers had grown up with. In promoting Bangerz, she embraced a provocative and unapologetically sexual image that polarized fans and critics alike. But what was hailed by some as artistic freedom became, in her words, a deeply painful transformation.
“That was the time where I just got hit so hard,” Cyrus told Monica Lewinsky on the podcast. “And I was so embarrassed.” While the public reacted with shock and ridicule—especially following her infamous VMA performance with Robin Thicke—Cyrus said the true weight of the backlash was most painful in her personal life.
She recalled how her own family was affected, with her siblings struggling under the public scrutiny. “My brother and sister didn’t want to go to school because of how humiliated they were to be related to me,” she said, reflecting on the guilt she felt for the burden her fame had placed on those closest to her.
The breakdown of relationships and identity
Perhaps most devastating for Cyrus was the way her public image clashed with her private relationships. At the time, she was engaged to actor Liam Hemsworth, but the relationship deteriorated in the wake of her evolving persona.
“I was engaged at the time. That didn’t work out, because I was sharing a part of myself that men wanted to be saved for them only,” she said. Her statement speaks to the complex double standards women face when expressing their sexuality in public—pushed to be bold, then punished for being too bold.
Cyrus described this period as one in which she “lost everything.” The disconnection from her family, her fans, and her romantic partner culminated in a sense of alienation from herself. She struggled with the pressure of living up to a new image while silently mourning the parts of her life it had cost her.
Haunted by the VMAs and internet cruelty
One of the most defining—and infamous—moments of the Bangerz era was Cyrus’s 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance, where she appeared in a skin-toned bodysuit while twerking alongside Robin Thicke. The performance ignited widespread criticism and a flood of internet memes, many of which focused cruelly on her body.
“All this sh*t because after the VMAs, where I had on my cute little nude bodysuit, everyone started comparing me to a turkey and putting a turkey in my outfit,” she said. The ridicule was so intense and persistent that she stopped wearing shorts and skirts in public altogether, fearing further humiliation.
Even years later, the psychological impact remains. “To this day,” she said, “I wear very modest bathing suits. You would never think, very modest.” This shift in wardrobe was not born out of personal taste, but out of the insecurities that were carved into her during that public shaming.
A woman in control, still healing
Cyrus’s reflections on her Bangerz era come at a time when she is increasingly open about both her trauma and growth. In recent years, she has become a vocal advocate for mental health, body autonomy, and the right of artists to define themselves on their own terms. Her conversation with Monica Lewinsky—someone who also experienced the brutal lens of media scrutiny—offered a rare moment of connection between two women shaped by a culture that often builds young women up only to tear them down.
By revisiting this chapter of her life not as a scandal, but as a point of vulnerability and truth, Cyrus is reclaiming the narrative. No longer just the provocateur of the 2010s pop world, she stands as a more complex, more human figure—one who has felt the weight of fame’s double edge and is still healing from its wounds.
Beyond the performance
Today, Miley Cyrus continues to evolve musically and personally, choosing to move at her own pace rather than follow industry expectations. Her recent projects have been received with more maturity and understanding from both critics and fans, signaling a cultural shift in how female pop stars are allowed to express themselves.
Yet, the scars from the Bangerz era remain. Cyrus’s admission that she felt shame in front of her father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus, reveals the quiet, often overlooked damage of public scandal—the pain that lives behind the headlines. Still, by confronting that past directly and with clarity, Miley Cyrus is doing what many in her position struggle to do: reclaim the power of her own story, not by erasing the missteps, but by honoring the lessons they taught her.
