Miley Cyrus Looks Back on ‘Hannah Montana’ 15 Years Later: ‘You’re a Huge Piece of Me’
Miley Cyrus is reminiscing on her past work as the star of Disney Channel’s original series “Hannah Montana” as the show celebrates its 15th anniversary.
While the teen sitcom “Hannah Montana” ended in 2011 (leaving Cyrus room to go on to break new ground in the pop space), the character lives on and just created her own verified Twitter account. So far, Hannah Montana’s only tweet is a retweet of an emotional letter Miley Cyrus wrote remembering the show’s anniversary, with the snarky caption, “nice to hear from you @mileycyrus. It’s only been a decade.”
In the two-page letter, which Cyrus wrote by hand on Hannah Montana stationary and published Wednesday morning, the “Wrecking Ball” singer remembered what it felt like to step into the role over a decade ago.
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“Although you are considered to be an ‘alter ego’ in reality, there was a time in my life when you held more of my identity in your glovette than I did in my bare hands,” Cyrus wrote to Hannah Montana. “We had an equal exchange in which you provided a superlative amount of fame in return for the anonymity I could gift to you. But, a lot has changed since then.”
In an interview with the “Rock This” podcast earlier this month, Cyrus said she had a bit of an identity crisis as a young Disney star cycling between her real life and Hannah Montana superstardom. She said it “was drilled into my head [that] without being Hannah Montana, no one cares about you. That was the concept. I really had to break that.”
Cyrus dedicated part of her letter to thanking her co-stars, Mitchel Musso and Emily Osment (who played her best friends Oliver Oken and Lilly Truscott), and the crew that worked on the show for five years. Cyrus also talked about the role her family played in her rise to superstardom, and opened up about losing her grandfather early into filming.
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“I lost my pappy, my dad’s father, while on set filming an early episode of season 1,” Cyrus said. “He wanted to hold on long enough to catch the premiere on March 24th. He passed away February 28th. He did get to see the commercial that ran during ‘High School Musical,’ which he claimed was one of the proudest moments in his lifetime and he was a badass Democratic state legislator… my heart was broken but fulfilled to know I could carry his name beside my dad’s through every credit.”
In her letter, Cyrus went on to say Hannah Montana was “like a rocket that flew me to the moon and never brought me back down.”
“It was bittersweet to know I would be leaving, you (a huge piece of me) behind in Stage 9, which is where I say I grew up when asked,” Cyrus said. “Hannah, I hope you hear me and believe those words are true. You have all my love and utmost gratitude. Breathing life into you for those six years was an honor.”
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When Hannah Montana first aired on the Disney Channel in 2006, Cyrus was 11 years old. Now, at 28, she’s lived the majority of the last 15 years in the limelight. The show’s catchy tunes helped boost Cyrus’ early singing career, and her recording chops actually led to several of the songs from “Hannah Montana” hitting the Billboard Hot 100 — the highest charted song was “He Could Be the One,” which peaked at no. 10.
When “Hannah Montana” premiered on this date in 2006, it broke ratings records for Disney, with over 5.4 million people tuned in.
Check out Miley Cyrus’ full message to Hannah Montana below.
Dear @HannahMontana, I still love you 15 years later. #HMForever pic.twitter.com/TBqZd5aOKh
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) March 24, 2021
Nice to hear from you @MileyCyrus. It’s only been a decade. https://t.co/KXd01DpciK
— Hannah Montana (@hannahmontana) March 24, 2021
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