They were family before they knew they were family.
Billy Ray Cyrus asked Dolly Parton to be Miley’s godmother around the time Miley was born, and Dolly said yes to a girl she’d end up calling “one of my own.” Thirty-two years later, an Ancestry.com genealogy trace found the bond was literal: they’re distant cousins by blood.
In September 2024, Ancestry.com research found that Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus are seventh cousins once removed, sharing an 18th-century ancestor named John Brickey, born in Virginia in 1740 and later settled near what became Dollywood in Blount County, Tennessee.
The tie between them started long before any DNA test. Billy Ray Cyrus met Parton in the early 1990s when he opened for her on tour behind “Achy Breaky Heart,” and he asked her to be Miley’s godmother. Parton often called it “fairy godmother,” joking she might not handle every traditional duty, but she said she knew Miley “before she ever got here.”
She played “Aunt Dolly” on Hannah Montana, and the two performed together for years, from “Jolene” duets to a “Wrecking Ball” cover on Parton’s 2023 rock album. Cyrus has said “Dolly’s been like a mother to me.”
When the cousin result came back, Parton wasn’t surprised. She said Miley “does feel like family,” and joked she’d have guessed they were closer than that.
Parton died August 25 at 80 in Nashville. Miley wrote, “I can’t believe we just lost the purest soul. Rest in Glory, Dolly. My heart aches.”
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