How Hannah Montana ‘destroyed’ Miley Cyrus’ family, gave her body dysmorphia and ruined her co-stars’ careers
HANNAH Montana made Miley Cyrus a household name and, to her legion of fans, her glamorous lifestyle mirrored her on screen character.
But there was a dark side to the fluffy Disney show, which first aired 15 years ago today.
Miley, now 28, has since claimed she was mistreated and underpaid by TV execs and left with body dysmorphia and mental health issues, while dad Billy Ray claims the show “destroyed” the family.
The child stars were also caught up in scandals - with Miley taking part in a raunchy photoshoot at 15, Mitchell Musso’s career marred by a DUI charge and Moises Aria being snapped in bed with a 13-year-old Willow Smith.
"I'll tell you right now, the damn show destroyed my family,” Billy Ray Cyrus told GC in 2011.
“There's no doubt about it. Somewhere along the line, both mine and Miley's faith had been shaken."
Here we examine the toxic legacy of Hannah Montana, the show that sent child star Miley off the rails.
'I was getting coffee jammed down my throat'
Miley’s dreams seemed to be coming true at 11 when she beat thousands of hopefuls to the role.
But the pressures of filming 12 hours a day soon took its toll on the young star.
"Every morning, I was getting coffee jammed down my throat to wake me up," she told Marie Claire.
"I just had to keep going, be tough, be strong. Everything happened to me on that set."
She began to suffer from anxiety and time off with friends was marred with panic attacks, as she dreaded returning to the studio.
“I would have anxiety attacks. I'd get hot flashes, feel like I was about to pass [out] or throw up. It would happen a lot before shows, and I'd have to cancel,” she said.
“Then the anxiety started coming from anxiety. I would be with my friends, thinking I should be having so much fun. You get in this hole that seems like you're never going to be able to get out of.”
Telling the story of teen pop superstar Hannah, who manages to keep her real identity of Miley Stewart secret, the character left its star with a personal crisis.
“From the time I was 11, it was, ‘You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing.’ Meanwhile, I'm this fragile little girl playing a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of makeup,” she told Marie Claire.
“I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show.
“I was made to look like someone that I wasn't, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn't on that show, it was like, "Who the f*** am I?"
In one heartbreaking tale from the show she revealed she got her first period on set, while wearing white trousers.
"It was so embarrassing, but I couldn't leave," she said. “I was crying, begging my mum: 'You're going to have to put the tampon in. I have to be on set.'"
She also claimed that she and her dad were the lowest paid on set and were exploited because they were not used to Hollywood pay deals.
Move to Hollywood puts family under strain
Miley and her siblings - Trace, Braison, Brandi and Noah - were used to fame, through country star Billy Ray.
But Miley’s new role meant uprooting the whole family from their ranch in Nashville, Tennessee and moving to LA.
The move led to cracks in the already stormy marriage between Billy Ray and Tish.
The pair twice filed for divorce - in 2010 and 2013 - before marriage therapy and crisis talks saved the relationship.
In an interview with GQ in 2011, as the show came to an end, Billy Ray blamed the pressures of filming for the family’s problems.
"I was going to work every single day knowing that my family had fallen apart, but yet I had to sit in front of that camera,” he said.
Adding that the show did irreparable damage at home, he added: “I'd erase it all in a second if I could."
With the marriage under strain, Billy Ray had a public spat with Miley, who appeared to accuse her father of cheating on Tish.
A tweet on her account, which she later claimed was hacked, said: “@billyraycyrus since you won't reply to my texts I'm giving you an hour to tell the truth or i’ll tell it for you.”
Attached was a picture of Miley herself posing with an unnamed woman, leading fans to to think Billy Ray had cheated with her.
Topless pictures at 15
At the height of her fame, Miley took part in a photoshoot for Vanity Fair with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
But the images caused uproar, picturing the then 15-year-old topless, wrapped in a sheet, with tousled hair and smeared lipstick.
Miley released a statement saying she was “embarrassed” by the shot.
Leibovitz later apologised saying: "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted."
But Disney bosses were furious, saying, "Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines."
More embarrassment came when pictures of Miley in a shower, in a clingy wet T-shirt, were leaked online.
The pictures of the star, then 15, were thought to have been meant for then-boyfriend Nick Jonas, despite their ‘chastity pact’ sealed with purity rings.
Co-star, 20, snapped in bed with Willow Smith, 13
Miley wasn’t the only one to cause concern with inappropriate images.
Three years after the show ended Moisés Arias, who played Rico, posted a picture on Instagram of himself, shirtless, in bed with a 13-year-old Willow Smith.He was 20.
The picture triggered an investigation by the LA social services but Willow’s parents, Will and Jada Smith, insisted the picture was entirely innocent.
He went on to release an album and still works as an actor, most recently in the 2019 movie Five Feet Apart.
Another co-star to court trouble was Mitchel Musso, who played Miley's friend, Oliver.
In 2011, he was arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and lost his role in the Disney series Pair of Kings. A show he hosted called PrankStars was canceled.
He has since worked as a voice artist on Phineas and Ferb.
Bongs, pole-dancing and pop stardom
While Hannah Montana had been a squeaky clean singer, Miley’s own transition into pop stardom was mired in controversy.
On the release of her third album, Can’t Be Tamed, Miley was clearly rebelling against her Disney image, cutting her hair, sticking out her tongue at every opportunity and released a raunchy rock track Party in the USA.
But the 16-year-old’s appearance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, gyrating on a poll on top of an ice cream cart, was deemed overly sexual by shocked viewers.
Days after her 18th birthday, she was filmed with a bong of psychedelic herb salvia and she told interviewers she was a frequent user of cannabis.
At the time, Billy Ray Cyrus said Miley’s TV “handlers” were trying to blame him for every wild stunt his daughter pulled.
“There's a train wreck happening and my daughter's right in the middle of it," he told GQ adding that it was hard to watch her going off the rails.
"I've done some stupid crap. But it's different when you sit back and you see it happening to your little girl,” he said.
“And some of these handlers are perhaps more interested in handling Miley's money than her safety and her career."
Miley quit the role in 2011, because she felt it was "ridiculous" to play the clean-cut teen after she'd had sex.
"The minute I had sex, I was kind of like, I can’t put the f***ing wig on again," she said. "It got weird. It just felt like...I was grown up."
Miley continued her shock tactics to make headlines, famously twerking against Robin Thicke in a nude latex bra and panties at the 2013 VMAS and stripping naked for her Wrecking Ball video.
But, with the most US Billboard top-five albums in the 21st century by a female artist, Miley has gone from strength to strength.
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In recent years, Miley has suggested she has come to terms with her experiences on the show and has even suggested she would play Hannah again.
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"You know what honestly, I try to put that wig on all the time," she says.
"She’s just in storage collecting dust and I’m ready to whip her out. I definitely would like to resurrect her at some point."