Miley Cyrus Says ‘Every Penny’ She Made Went to Her Own Bank Account, Shuts Down Claims Her Parents Needed Her to ‘Survive’

NEED TO KNOW

• Miley Cyrus recently reflected on how her role as Hannah Montana impacted her family

• During the conversation with Variety, she shut down claims that her parents relied on her fame and money to “survive”

• The “Flowers” singer also opened up about how her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, protected her on set daily during the show’s run

Miley Cyrus is opening up about her days on Disney Channel.

The “Flowers” singer, 33, recently chatted with Variety and reflected on her role as Miley Stewart, a.k.a Hannah Montana, on the popular 2000s series. During the conversation, she opened up about how the role impacted her family’s life. She also set the record straight about claims that her parents, Billy Ray Cyrus, who starred alongside her as her onscreen dad Robby Ray Stewart, and Tish Cyrus, needed her fame to “survive or to be stable.”

“My parents didn’t need me to be famous to survive or to be stable,” she told the outlet. “What happens to a lot of these kids is their parents want it more than they do, or the kids become responsible for the entire income of the family. That was never my job. Every penny I ever made went into my bank account because my parents were good.”

Miley went on to share how her dad was there with her every step of the way during the show’s five-year run. She explained that her dressing room was connected to her dad’s and that her grandmother, Loretta “Mammie” Finley, stayed in the kitchen-turned-office in between them, managing her fan club.

“My dad was on set every single day, so there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn’t know about,” Miley said. “There was never a time where I was going to be alone in that dressing room.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Disney alum opened up about the fateful road that led to her getting the lead in Disney’s Hannah Montana, noting she was turned down for an initial audition when the network decided to go in a different direction after seeing Miley’s first taped audition.

A year later, she was brought to Los Angeles to try again, in person, which is when she was awarded the role. As they worked on casting the rest of Hannah’s family for the series, Tish recalled a Disney casting director with a little crush on Billy Ray joking, “Too bad we can’t afford her real dad.”

Tish’s response was, “Oh, maybe you can,” seeing an opportunity for the family to spend more time together. Billy Ray was, at the time, splitting time between Canada and Tennessee while shooting the TV drama Doc.

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The only problem facing the family was that Billy Ray almost gave the role away when coming in to audition. Miley explained that her dad was “too nice” and started encouraging other dads attending auditions for the show with their daughters to audition for what became the role of Robby Ray Stewart.

“He goes out into the parking lot, grabs other dads, brings them into Disney and is like, ‘You should hire this guy! He’s a great actor!’ ” Miley recalled.

“And my mom was behind him, squeezing his back, saying, ‘Shut up! We need you to get the role so we can all move out here!'”

“My dad always says, ‘When you knock ’em out, you don’t need a judge.’ We knocked ’em out,” Miley said of the situation, which ended with Billy Ray’s casting. He appeared in 99 episodes of the series.

“It was so obvious, after all the other dads, that you can’t fake the kind of connection that we have. The inside jokes, the nicknames, the handshakes, singing the songs together. It was a TKO.”

The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special, premieres on March 24 — exactly 20 years after the original series first aired on the Disney Channel —on Disney and Disney+.

Read the original article on People