Celebrity
Elizabeth Hurley & Billy Ray Cyrus Are Dating, & There Was 1 Big Clue
The signs were there beforehand.
A new surprise celebrity couple is born. Elizabeth Hurley and Billy Ray Cyrus shocked their fans with an Easter Sunday hard launch, debuting their romance on social media on April 20. However, in hindsight, it’s clear that Hurley was hinting at their relationship almost two weeks earlier, when she posted a video from the Maldives to her Instagram on April 9.
The Big Clue
The post didn’t initially seem out of the ordinary for Hurley. In the video, she’s wearing a swimsuit from her own label as she wades in the ocean, waves and blows kisses at the camera, and enjoys the views. “The most glorious sunset in the glorious Maldives,” she wrote in her caption, alongside a red heart emoji.
Post-hard launch, her audio and tags have new meaning. Not only did she tag Cyrus, she added his 1993 song “She’s Not Cryin’ Anymore.” (Ironically, the lyrics tell the story of a woman who moves on after the singer — Cyrus — takes her love for granted.) In light of their big relationship reveal, it looks like Hurley was subtly hiding Easter eggs.
At the time, many of Hurley’s followers’ comments centered on her and the beach setting. Then, after she and Cyrus went public as a couple, a new wave of fans showed up to write things like, “Makes sense now.”
Hurley & Cyrus’ History
On April 20, Hurley and Cyrus shared a joint Instagram post showing the two of them looking cozy together as they both leaned against a fence. Hurley, clad in jeans, a flannel shirt, and a cowboy hat, smiled and turned her face toward a bunny-ear-sporting Cyrus as he went in for a kiss. “Happy Easter,” Hurley wrote in the caption, adding a red heart emoji.
The fan response included a lot of shock. “Wait….what?” wrote actor Melissa Gilbert in the comments. Numerous others had similar reactions, like “What in the Hannah Montana is going on?” and “who else totally did not have this one on their 2025 bingo card?”
Though the public was surprised, the two have history as friends. They starred together in 2022’s Christmas in Paradise, in which Hurley played Joanna Christmas, one of three daughters who travel to the Caribbean to bring back their dad, while Cyrus portrayed his musician friend.
Even before that, Hurley was a fan of Cyrus. While promoting Christmas in Paradise, she told MovieWeb that she knew his work “really well” from watching Hannah Montana with her son, Damian Hurley, when he was younger, so “the opportunity to work with Billy Ray” was one of the aspects of the project that inspired her.
A source recently told People that the former co-stars “had a great time shooting that movie together” and have now been “seeing each other romantically for a little bit.”
