Miley Cyrus Pays Tribute To Her Late Godmother Dolly Parton

Miley Cyrus is remembering her beloved Aunt Dolly. On Aug. 26, the singer took to Instagram to pay tribute to her late godmother, country icon Dolly Parton, who died on Aug. 25 in Nashville at the age of 80.

“The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share,” Cyrus wrote alongside a glamorous photo of the late musician. “Our most sacred moments were private and they’ll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour & between our hearts.”

Cyrus did share, however, how Parton would encourage her to navigate the loss. “What I KNOW is Dolly would want me to feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong. I have an angel by my side. I always have,” she wrote. “One of our last conversations was about music and metamorphosis.”

Cyrus concluded her statement with a nod to one of Parton’s famous lyrics, writing: “I will always love her and want to make her proud. My heart breaks for the world, her family and friends who will miss her deeply. We’re in this loss together and we will see her in all of the most beautiful things.”

Cyrus’ storied relationship with the legendary singer-songwriter dates back to before she was even born. Her father, Billy Ray, became close friends with Parton after going on tour together in 1992, when his then-wife, Tish, was pregnant with Cyrus. “He said, ‘We’re having a girl, and you’ve got to be her godmother!’ And I said, ‘Well, I’d be honored,’” Parton recalled on The Howard Stern Show in 2023. “Miley and I took over from there. We just stayed very, very close through the years.”

Parton appeared as Aunt Dolly on Cyrus’ breakout show Hannah Montana, which she credits with introducing her to a new generation of fans. “From the bottom of my heart, I’m really proud of you,” she told Cyrus during her 2023 holiday special. “I’m proud to be your fairy godmother. One thing that touches me most of all was when you had me on Hannah Montana years ago, you really helped my career.”

After the series ended, they stayed close both personally and professionally. Parton is featured on Cyrus’ track “Rainbowland” from her 2017 album Younger Now, and in 2023, Cyrus returned the favor by turning her 2013 hit “Wrecking Ball” into a duet on Parton’s album Rockstar. In 2019, Cyrus participated in the Grammys’ tribute to Parton and sang “Jolene” with her godmother — a track that Cyrus has adopted as her own with multiple covers in the past decade.

More recently, the two co-hosted Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party special in 2022 and performed several duets. To ring in 2023, they sang a devastating medley of “Wrecking Ball” and Parton’s seminal classic “I Will Always Love You,” which would be their final performance together.

Naturally, they’ve sung each other’s praises many times, but they were close enough to throw a little shade, with Cyrus sharing that Parton hated one of her singles in a 2024 interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “[Dolly] goes, ‘I don’t know if I like that new ‘Used to Be Young’ song because it’s not fair that you’re singing about not being young when you’re young and beautiful,” Cyrus remembered.

But above all else, Cyrus made sure to give Parton her flowers while she could, honoring her for the Time100 list in 2021. “There’s a theory that you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but I wish everyone had the chance to meet Dolly Parton, because she’s even better than your sparkliest dreams,” she wrote. “She may be my fairy godmother, but I think she’s that to everyone else too.”