If history and the Bible are to be our guide, there are few better days than Easter Sunday to announce a surprise comeback and a bright new era – especially if it’s one that makes your devoted followers say, “Er, hold on, what?”
Liz Hurley, a dab hand at shock value for well over three decades, clearly knows this. Hurley has spent the last few years in relative quiet. At 59 (honestly, Google it), she still acts occasionally, but rather than maintain her celebrity, she’s seemed to live a life of bucolic splendour at her 13-bedroom Georgian pile in Herefordshire, far away from the gossip pages she used to reside in. The only man in her life, and on her arm, has been her son and clone, Damian.
That changed on Sunday afternoon, when Hurley posted a photograph to her Instagram of her in jeans, a straw hat and a blue-plaid shirt, being kissed by none other than Billy Ray Cyrus, the thrice-married country singer, actor and, latterly, Trump supporter and nepo parent. Cyrus is also in denim, and accessorises his look with bunny ears and some kind of large stick. To confirm the rollout was mutual, he reposted the image to his account.
“Happy Easter,” Hurley captioned it. An instant response came in from the US actress Melissa Gilbert. “Wait… what?” she wrote, ushering a tsunami of similarly confused replies. True to form, acolytes were perplexed. It had been a while, but Basingstoke’s finest was back in the gossip pages, back with a new famous partner, and this one couldn’t be more different from the last. Elizabeth Hurley is risen. As for Billy Ray? Well, he is risen indeed.
Investigators are still working on how exactly this coupling has come about, but early indications suggest Hurley and Cyrus met while shooting the 2022 film Christmas in Paradise. On the off-chance you didn’t catch it, here is a summary: Kelsey Grammer plays James Christmas, a man who runs away to the Caribbean when he is dumped.
Hurley, despite being only 11-years Grammer’s junior, plays his daughter, who flies out to find him. Meanwhile, Cyrus plays a faded country singer who looks and sounds exactly like the faded country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, and even sings Billy Ray Cyrus songs, but is for some reason called Jimmy Love. Some things happen, the end.
At the time of that production, Cyrus, 63, was divorcing Tish, his wife of nearly 30 years and the mother of most of his children, including the gravel-voiced pop superstar Miley Cyrus. They’d filed for divorce twice before, in 2011 and 2013, but it was finalised in April 2022 with a statement to People: “It is after 30 years, five amazing children and a lifetime of memories, we have decided to go our separate ways – not with sadness, but with love in our hearts.”
Indeed, Billy Ray’s achy-breaky heart was mended within months, when he became engaged to an Australian singer named “Firerose” (real name Johanna Scholem), who he met in around 2010 during the production of Hannah Montana, the Disney show that launched Miley as a star.
At 32, Miley is only two years younger than Firerose, so must have been delighted when her peer became her de-facto stepmother in October 2023 (alas, she didn’t attend the wedding), then gutted when her father filed to annul the marriage after seven months, citing fraud.
Afterwards, Cyrus Snr took out a restraining order against Firerose to stop her accessing his money, claiming she spent $97,000 on his credit cards in two weeks.
In turn, Firerose alleged abuse, claimed Cyrus had a drug problem, and denied all his accusations. Last July, Cyrus posted an image on his Instagram story of the word “fraud” over a candle, covered by rose petals. By the end of the year, the matter was considered closed, leaving Cyrus to focus on performing at Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
All told, it’s very easy to see what Billy Ray sees in Hurley – principally, a charming English woman with a tragic inability to age – but it’s not overwhelmingly straightforward to see what Hurley sees in him. Yet she has never been anything but eclectic and unexpected in her choice of partners.
Her self-declared “four great loves” range from Hugh Grant (still her best friend) to the businessman Steve Bing (who, after much faff, it was established is Damian’s father), to dapper Indian heir Arun Nayar, and the hell-raising Australian cricket legend Shane Warne.
Tragically, two of those men, Bing and Warne, have died – “I always say to the other two, you’d better watch your backs,” she joked two years ago – and for a while she seemed content to share her life only with Damian. A model and nascent film director, the 23-year-old cast his mother in his debut feature, Strictly Confidential, and gave her character a lesbian sex scene. Via an Instagram heart emoji, he appears to have endorsed her new relationship.
“I’d definitely be open to the idea of being loved, loving someone, having someone fantastic in my life and sharing it,” Hurley explained to Tatler a few years ago. “I don’t know if marriage comes into that to be honest, because I’m not going to have more children, and I don’t need anyone to pay my bills or give me a roof over my head. But I would like someone for companionship, fun.”
If a thread runs through Hurley’s life, it’s that she does precisely what she wants, without fear of judgement. And here she goes again, finding happiness with an Easter surprise absolutely nobody saw coming. Probably including Billy Ray Cyrus. So, welcome back to the gossip pages, Liz. It’s been mightily dull without you.
