Miley Cyrus has addressed her past feud with Sinéad O’Connor, following the late singer’s death last month. The tension between the two women started back in 2013 when Cyrus released her music video for “Wrecking Ball,” which featured the former Disney Channel star riding naked on a wrecking ball. She later compared the video to O’Connor’s music video for “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
O’Connor then wrote a public letter to Cyrus, after learning of the comments, expressing concern for the young singer. “I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos,” wrote O’Connor. “It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping.”
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Cyrus was not thrilled about the open letter, and she responded by ridiculing some of O’Conner’s tweets, and comparing her to Amanda Bynes, who had been dealing with mental health struggles. “I was unwell and seeking help,” O’Connor hit back in a second open letter. She added, “It is not acceptable to mock any person for having suffered.”
Now, per PEOPLE, in her new Hulu special — Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions) — Cyrus has opened up about the feud. “At the time when I made ‘Wrecking Ball’, I was expecting for there to be controversy and backlash, but I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women that had been in my position before,” she said. Reflecting on the situation, Cyrus added, “I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in. And I was also only 20 years old. So I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much.”
“All that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea, and even if I was convinced that it was, it was still just men in power’s idea of me and they had manipulated me to believe that it was my own idea when it never really was,” she continued. “And it was. And it is. And I still love it.”
Finally, Cyrus said, “Our younger childhood triggers and traumas come up in weird and odd ways, and I think I had just been judged for so long for my own choices that I was just exhausted. I was in this place where I finally was making my own choices and my own decisions, and to have that taken away from me deeply upset me.”
