Billy Ray Cyrus Files for Divorce from Tish Cyrus

Just a month shy of her eighteenth birthday, Miley Cyrus is hearing the fat lady sing for the marriage between her parents, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus.

Citing “irreconcilable differences” Billy Ray Cyrus filed for divorce from his wife Leticia “Tish” Finley Cyrus after 17 years of marriage and five children.

Forty-nine-year-old Billy Ray, and Tish, 43, are parents to teen sensation Miley, 17, Braison, 16, and Noah, 10; Billy Ray also adopted Trace and Brandi, Tish’s children from a previous relationship.

“As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family,” they say in a joint statement. “We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.”

In the papers filed in Tennessee, Billy Ray asks for shared custody of their three minor kids, as well as equitable division of their assets.

Tish and Billy Ray secretly married a month after Cyrus’s birth on December 28, 1992 against the advice of Billy Ray’s record label. It was the second marriage for Billy Ray, who was married to Cindy Smith from 1986 to 1991. Miley was originally named Destiny Hope because Billy Ray and Tish believed that she would do great things in life. Because of her pleasant disposition as a baby, they nicknamed her “Smiley,” which was later shortened to Miley.

Billy Ray has another son, Christopher Cody – also born in 1992 – from a brief relationship with Kristin Luckey, who raised him in South Carolina. Apparently, 1992 was a good year for Billy Ray, as it was the same year he burst onto the music scene when his song “Achy Breaky Heart” became a smash hit.

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