What to Know
Three years after Firerose and Billy Ray Cyrus‘ marriage came to a turbulent end, she’s speaking out about the people who helped her get through it. In a new interview with Page Six, Firerose credited her support system for surviving such a tough time in her life, and it’s made up of a group of very unexpected celebrities who have all been through similar struggles in their own past relationships.
Firerose’s friend group is made up of a few stars you’ve probably heard of before.
Firerose told Page Six that among her closest friends are Crystal Harris, Aubrey O’Day, and Courtney Stodden — all women who have walked through difficult relationships with men, from Crystal’s marriage to Hugh Hefner to Courtney marrying ex-husband Doug Stodden when she was just 16 years old and he was 51.
Meanwhile, Firerose was married to Billy Ray Cyrus for less than a year before she filed for divorce, accusing him of “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse.”
“I’m really grateful for every strong bada– survivor who’s gone before me, and I’m so honored to be able to call them my dear friends,” she said.
They have their own group chat called “Survivor Sisters.”
“Our group chat goes off in the most beautiful way,” she explained. “It’s such a supportive, loving connection that we have, and obviously, the tightness of our friendship is accentuated by the fact that we’ve all survived.”
She added, So many young women go through versions of what we have, and they don’t make it. They don’t survive. They don’t get the blessing and miracle of getting through something that is so extreme and so public and then coming out of it and building a beautiful life.”
Since Firerose is estranged from her family, she told Page Six that her friends have become her family instead.
She said her friends were shocked to find out what was really going on in her marriage to Billy Ray.
“Part of narcissistic abuse is the strategic isolation and the coercive control to separate you from your community and your friends,” Firerose said.
But now that she’s no longer with Billy Ray, she’s able to form the strong friendships she was kept from during their relationship — and share what happened to her honestly, which she said surprised her friends.
“A lot of them were like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I had no idea what was really happening behind closed doors,’” she said.
Now, she has a new outlook on her purpose in life. She said, “You can go through the most difficult things and come out of it, and it doesn’t take away any of the trauma or pain, but you can always choose to alchemize it, better yourself and help others with what you’ve learned.”
Good for her. After everything Firerose has been through, it must be nice to have a whole community of friends to lean on.
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