Miley Cyrus Says 'A Lot of Drugs' Ended Hannah Montana's Career Nearly 10 Years Ago
Miley Cyrus has moved on from her Disney days and her fictional pop persona Hannah Montana.
While appearing as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race this week, the contestants had a lip sync battle to the tune of Montana’s hit song “Best of Both Worlds.”
Ahead of the performance, RuPaul asked the singer-actress about her former alter ego’s whereabouts. “Hey, whatever happened to her?” the 58-year-old reality show host said.
While many would assume Cyrus’ answer would pertain to getting older or simply outgrowing Montana, the guest judge had other ideas as to why she bid the role that skyrocketed her to fame adieu.
“A lot of drugs,” Cyrus, 26, jokingly said about the Hannah Montana character.
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Though Cyrus was never hesitant to discuss her love for drugs in years past, the star spoke to Billboard in 2017 where she revealed she was “evolving”— and part of that newfound growth included giving up marijuana and beginning a fresh slate.
“I haven’t smoked weed in three weeks, which is the longest I’ve ever [gone without it],” she said. “I’m not doing drugs, I’m not drinking, I’m completely clean right now! That was just something that I wanted to do.”
Cyrus said she had grown out of, what she called, her Dead Petz phase — referring to the psychedelic 2015 album that saw the star cover her face with glittery liquid for the cover.
It was around that time that the star also rekindled her relationship with now-husband Liam Hemsworth.
After taking a lengthy hiatus from the substance, however, Cyrus recently revealed that she has returned to smoking marijuana — and her mother Tish Cyrus was responsible for the reintroduction!
“My mom got me back on it,” she said in an interview with The Sun in December. “When I’m just working, I don’t think I function at my highest, most intelligent, most being-able-to-be-as-aware-and- as-present, so I don’t smoke when I work.”
RELATED: Miley Cyrus Reveals How She Started Smoking Weed Again: ‘My Mom Got Me Back on It’
Not only did Cyrus serve as a guest judge during Thursday’s season 11 premiere of the reality show, but she also got to dress in drag, going undercover as “Barry ‘B.J.’ Johnson,” a male crew member working for Drag Race‘s production company, World of Wonder.
The costume — complete with a beard, short wig, black hat, black T-shirt and hoodie — gave Cyrus the anonymity she needed to go into the Drag Race “Werk Room,” where she interacted with the 15 queens competing for season 11.
“I’m going to go and meet the queens for the first time, but they don’t know they’re meeting me,” Cyrus explained on the show. “I wanted to go undercover with the ladies. So I’m going in as a crew member. They’re never going to know what hit ’em.”
She even did an impression of a heterosexual male, telling the camera, “I love me some f—ing beautiful women!”
Though it’s her first time in the judge’s chair, it won’t be the first time Cyrus has been on the show. She previously appeared in the audience of the season 7 finale taping back in 2015.
From there, Cyrus even pooled many of the show’s alumni — including Shangela, Alyssa Edwards, Laganja Estranja, Gia Gunn, and Courtney Act — to join her MTV VMAs’ performance of “Dooo It!”
That’s not the only tie Cyrus has to Drag Race. The actress, who wed Hemsworth in December, also identifies as a “queer person” and recently opened up about being in a “hetero relationship” while still being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on VH1.
