Like many child stars, Miley Cyrus got her start on Disney Channel.
She was known to fans not as Miley Cyrus, but as Miley Stewart, the California teen living a double life as pop star Hannah Montana in the series of the same name.
Her dad, singer Billy Ray Cyrus, played her on-screen dad and manager, Robby Stewart.
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From there, she launched into her own music career, desperate to shed her Disney girl skin.
Now, she is making a return to her iconic character for the 20-year reunion of the hit show, which ran for four seasons.
Photos of her wearing the iconic blonde wig and new pop-star-worthy outfits are circulating online, with massive fanfare from millennials and Gen Zers who grew up watching the series.
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The return to the character that made her famous is not just significant because of its nostalgic value – it is a full-circle moment for the now real-life pop star.
Since the show ended in 2011, Cyrus has been through A LOT.
The year after the show’s end, she got engaged to Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth before the pair split in 2013.
She cut off her long hair and released a new album, along including the hit Wrecking Ball – signalling her departure from her Disney days as she swung around naked on a wrecking ball in the music video.
The same year, she pulled off a jaw-dropping – and controversial – performance at the VMAs, dancing and twerking in a bunny leotard and latex underwear with Robin Thicke.
Although the performance left mothers everywhere outraged, it worked: Cyrus rewrote how the world saw her in almost record time.
Most child stars struggle to split from their Disney image so quickly. She was the exception.
For the next few years, she kept up with this persona, reuniting with Hemsworth in 2016, before they were married in 2018.
The pair divorced in late 2019.
Now, as she films her reunion special, she is engaged to drummer Maxx Morando after four years of dating.
In 2022, the star’s parents, Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus, divorced.
The divorce led to a fallout between the Flowers singer and her dad, with the pair reportedly not speaking for three years.
News of the pair’s falling-out devastated fans who had grown up watching them on Hannah Montana.
Last year, she made up with her dad, posting on her Instagram Story that she values family over everything else.
“My dad and I have had our struggles over the years,” she wrote.
“Now, I’m in my thirties, family is my priority above all else. I’m at peace knowing bridges have been built and time has done a lot of healing.”
Cyrus also released a song for her dad, which she wrote with his favourite artists, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood.
As she films the reunion, fans have been left wondering if her dad will reprise his role as Robby Stewart, since the pair are back on speaking terms.
Throughout her career, she tinkered with different genres, including punk rock, alternative, indie, Electropop and Country – but ironically, it was her return to pop that saw her biggest successes.
She won her first Grammy in 2024, taking home Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for her hit Flowers from the pop album Endless Summer Vacation.
This was a full-circle moment in itself; the girl who played the award-winning pop star had transformed into a Grammy-winning pop star in front of our eyes.
The Hannah Montana Movie, released in 2009, closes out with Cyrus singing a song titled You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home.
“You can change your hair and you can change your clothes,” she sings.
“You can change your mind, that’s just the way it goes / You can say goodbye and you can say hello / But you’ll always find your way back home.”
In 2026, as she’s found herself back in her iconic wig and reunited with her family, it’s safe to say she did find her way back home.
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