Cody Simpson Reflects on Whirlwind Romance With Miley Cyrus, Why They Broke Up

Australian singer and swimmer Cody Simpson opened up about his whirlwind romance with fellow singer Miley Cyrus in a candid television interview on Sunday. While on the Australian 60 Minutes show for Nine Network, the 24-year-old said their breakup was “fairly amicable” and considered that time in his life as “one of those phases.” Simpson and Cyrus, 28, started dating in October 2019 and broke up last summer.

60 Minutes journalist Karl Stefanovic jokingly asked Simpson what was he thinking by dating Cyrus, but Simpson seriously explained that he had known her for some time before they dated. He said Cyrus was “not like a mentor,” but “always a hyper-creative person,” reports the Daily Mail. “We went from being good friends to just having a lot of the same friends, to being together for a while,” Simpson said. “Everything ended fairly amicably, and it was just one of those phases I guess. You go through [it] and you learn a lot from it.”

Simpson moved to the U.S. when he was 13 to start a career in music. He earned a handful of hit singles and appeared on Dancing With the Stars in 2014. On Sunday, Simpson joked that he “tried not to” date famous women during his early career, but he wasn’t successful at this. He dated Kylie Jenner and Gigi Hadid before Cyrus. In December 2020, he confirmed he was dating model Marloes Stevens.

Cyrus and Simpson were inseparable during the last few months of 2019. There was speculation that the two broke up at the end of that year, but they were still going strong until TMZ reported they broke up in August 2020. The news came on the eve of the release of “Midnight Sky,” the lead single for Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts. After reports of the breakup surfaced, Cyrus was critical of the coverage. During an Instagram Live video, she said the two would remain friends.

“For right now, two halves can’t make a whole, and we’re individually just working on ourselves, becoming the people that we want to be. Like everybody else at this age, we’re just deciding who we want to be with our lives, what we want to do with our lives,” Cyrus explained in the video. “And so, don’t make it some drama story if next week we hang out and we’re getting pizza. We’ve been friends for 10 years, and we’re going to continue to be friends. Just don’t make it something that it is not.”

As for Simpson, he is also pursuing a career as a swimmer. In December 2020, he announced he qualified for the Olympic trials. While it seems unlikely Simpson will swim in Tokyo this year, Australian swimming legend Grant Hackett made a bold prediction after watching Simpson train. Hackett told News.com.au he thinks Simpson could make the team for Paris in 2024. Hackett was “blown away” by Simpson’s swimming, even though the singer hasn’t swam seriously in over a decade.