Miley Cyrus has spoken out about how she felt about Sinéad O'Connor's open letter to her in 2013 after she released her hit song and video "Wrecking Ball" and how her feelings about it have since changed.
The "Wrecking Ball" video, which featured a scantily clad Cyrus with a cropped haircut riding and licking a wrecking ball, shocked fans and marked a clear departure from her Disney child star era.
"It's like the Sinéad O'Connor video [for "Nothing Compares 2 U"], but, like, the most modern version," Cyrus told Rolling Stone in October 2013 about the video after it was released.
"I wanted it to be tough but really pretty - that's what Sinéad did with her hair and everything."
In response to the comments in Rolling Stone, O'Connor, who was 46 at the time, penned a lengthy open letter to Cyrus "in the spirit of motherliness and with love."
O'Connor told Cyrus she was "extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos."
Citing her years of experience in the music industry, O'Connor warned Cyrus: "The music business doesn't give a s--t about you, or any of us.
"They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted … and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, 'they' will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone."
She added: "You are worth more than your body or your sexual appeal."
Cyrus, who was 20 at the time, didn't take kindly to O'Connor's message and likened the Irish songstress to Amanda Bynes, the former Nickelodeon star who suffers from bipolar disorder.
However, speaking on "Miley Cyrus: Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions)" that aired on ABC on August 24, Cyrus, now 30, reflected on her initial reaction to O'Connor's message.
“So at the time when I made ‘Wrecking Ball,’ I was expecting for there to be controversy and backlash,” Cyrus said.
“But I don’t think I expected other women to put me down, or turn on me, especially women who had been in my position before.
“So this is when I had received an open letter from Sinéad O’Connor and I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in.
“And I was also only 20 years old, so I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much.
“And all that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea. And even if I was convinced that it was, it was still just men in power’s idea of me and they had manipulated me to believe that it was my own idea, when it never really was.
“And it was. And it is. And I still love it.”
Cyrus continued: “Our younger childhood triggers and traumas come up in weird and odd ways and I think I had just been judged for so long for my own choices that I was just exhausted and I was in this place where I finally was making my own choices and my own decisions and to have that taken away from me deeply upset me.
“God bless Sinéad O’Connor, for real, in all seriousness.”
The ABC special then moves into Cyrus performing her song “Wonder Woman,” with a caption on the screen “Dedicated to Sinéad O’Connor.”
The song opens: “She's a wonder woman / She knows what she likes / Never know she's broken / ‘Cause she's always fine / She's a million moments / Lived a thousand lives / Never know she's hopeless / Only when she cries”
It appears Cyrus had let bygones be bygones a while ago. Last year, she merged her 2013 hit song with O’Connor’s hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” while performing at the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest in Los Angeles.
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