Dolly Parton died on a date that carries deep personal weight for her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus.
Parton, 80, passed away on Tuesday following what the source described as a secret battle with cancer. The country music legend’s death fell on August 25, a date Cyrus, 32, has repeatedly identified as historically significant across both her personal life and her career.
Cyrus deliberately chose August 25, 2023, as the release date for her single “Used to Be Young,” explaining the significance during her ABC special “Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions)” in 2024. “I decided to release ‘Used to Be Young’ on Aug. 25 because this particular date historically has been important to me personally and in my career,” she said in the special.
The date first marked a major personal turning point for Cyrus back in 2010. She and then-boyfriend Liam Hemsworth, who were 17 and 20 respectively, briefly broke up on August 25 of that year. The split would prove temporary, though the couple’s on-again, off-again relationship eventually ended in divorce years later.
Exactly three years after that breakup, on August 25, 2013, Cyrus released “Wrecking Ball,” the single that became one of the defining hits of her career. That same evening, she delivered her controversial MTV Video Music Awards performance alongside Robin Thicke, a moment that generated massive cultural reaction and marked her dramatic pivot away from her Disney-era image.
The date carries family significance as well: August 25 is Billy Ray Cyrus’ birthday. Billy Ray, 63, had tapped Parton to serve as Miley’s godmother back in 1992 after the two country stars formed a close friendship through the industry.
Beyond their familial bond, Parton and Cyrus collaborated professionally across multiple decades. They shared the stage at the 2019 Grammy Awards and co-hosted NBC’s “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party” in 2023. Parton called that hosting gig the “thrill of [her] life” in an interview.
“Even when we were rehearsing, Miley was crying,” Parton shared in that same interview.
“The fact that we were singing so well together stirred up our emotions very much. Then we went into ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and she would just have these tears coming down and it was so emotional.”
Parton also made several onscreen appearances as “Aunt Dolly” on Cyrus’ hit Disney Channel series “Hannah Montana,” which ran from 2006 to 2011. The role embedded her directly into the fictional family structure that paralleled their real-life bond.
Though Parton never had children of her own, Cyrus has been open about viewing her godmother as a maternal figure. “Dolly’s been like a mother to me,” she told W Magazine in 2024.
“Actually, I was just reading this fax that she sent me two Mother’s Days ago,” she continued in that W Magazine interview. “Dolly wrote to me to say: ‘How much do I love you? As much as my heart can hold and as far as my arms can reach.'”
At the time the original report was published, Cyrus had not yet publicly addressed Parton’s death. The silence came as fans and observers noted the painful symmetry of losing her godmother on a date already so loaded with personal meaning.
In the viral moment that established this story, outlets highlighted how Parton’s death date intersected with Cyrus’ previously stated personal mythology around August 25, transforming what had been a date of professional milestones and romantic rupture into one of profound loss. The coincidence drew immediate attention from fans who had followed Cyrus’ career-long commentary on the date’s significance, with many noting that the singer could not have anticipated how the day would come to mark yet another emotional turning point in her life.
Parton and Cyrus’ professional collaborations spanned multiple formats and venues, from awards show stages to holiday television specials, with their final major joint appearance coming on that 2023 New Year’s Eve broadcast. Their duet performances typically drew on Parton’s own catalog, including “I Will Always Love You,” which Parton originally wrote and recorded in 1973.
