Billy Ray Cyrus says his burgeoning connection with Elizabeth Hurley is helping to heal his achy breaky heart.
The country music star, 63, opened up about the pair’s relationship during an upcoming interview on Apple Music Country’s “The Ty Bentli Show,” according to an excerpt of the conversation published by People.
Cyrus revealed that he and the English actor and model, 59, met while filming the 2022 movie “Christmas in Paradise” on a Caribbean island shortly after he separated from his ex-wife Tish Cyrus in April 2022.
“We did very few scenes together but the couple times we were in the same scene there was a chemistry there,” Billy Ray Cyrus said of Hurley. “We just laughed, and it was at a time I wasn’t laughing a lot.”
“The oddest part was first, how much we laughed,” he added. “Second, I figured we were so different but in some very strange way we had way more in common than we had different.”
After filming wrapped, the two didn’t speak again for two years until Hurley, aware that Cyrus was going through a tough time, sent a text offering him friendship.
“I felt like, ‘Wow, can life get any harder? Can it get any tougher?’ For me, at a certain point it was like, you can’t get knocked down any flatter than laying on your back when life is kicking you,” recalled Cyrus. “And in this moment … (Hurley) reached out.”
Though Cyrus didn’t recognize the text’s number, he was grateful for its sentiment.
“So, I text back, I go, ‘Who is this?’ And it’s like, ‘Elizabeth Hurley.’ Of all the people to reach out to me in that second that maybe I needed most … this friend who made me laugh,” Cyrus said.
The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer — who finalized a contentious divorce from ex-wife Firerose in August 2024 after seven months of marriage — called Hurley a “great human being.”
“If all we ever were (is) the friends that we are, I would take that,” he explained. “She’s so impressively brilliant. She reminds me a lot of Dolly Parton. She’s a very smart businesswoman.”
“If you can laugh together, you can make it through everything,” he added.
Cyrus and Hurley hard launched their relationship on April 20 when they jointly shared an Instagram photo of Cyrus kissing the “Austin Powers” star’s cheek. “Happy Easter,” they captioned it.
Though many fans were surprised to learn the couple were dating, Hurley’s 23-year-old son, Damian Hurley, whose dad is late businessman Steve Bing, celebrated the post by commenting with heart and party face emoji.
Prior to debuting their romance, Hurley posted a video of herself on April 9 at the beach set to Cyrus’ 1992 song, “She’s Not Cryin’ Anymore” and tagged Cyrus in the post.
