Miley Cyrus Once Said August 25 Always Changed Her Life—Then Dolly Parton Died on That Exact Date

Miley Cyrus had already decided years ago that August 25 was not an ordinary date in her life. In 2023, when she released the reflective single Used to Be Young, she deliberately chose August 25 and explained that the date had repeatedly marked important personal and professional turning points. By then, it had already carried breakups, career reinvention, one of the most controversial performances of her life, and one of her biggest songs. It was also her father Billy Ray Cyrus’s birthday, tying the date permanently to family as well as fame. Then August 25 arrived again in 2026. This time, the news had nothing to do with charts or performances. Dolly Parton—the woman Miley had called “Aunt Dolly” for most of her life—died that day at 80, adding the most painful chapter yet to a date Miley herself had once singled out as unusually significant.

The pattern stretches back to August 25, 2010, when Miley’s first breakup with Liam Hemsworth was reported after the two had met filming The Last Song. Three years later, on August 25, 2013, the audio for Wrecking Ball arrived just as Miley stepped onto the MTV Video Music Awards stage with Robin Thicke for the performance that would dominate pop-culture conversation for months. The backlash was enormous, but so was the attention; Wrecking Ball soon became her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. Exactly a decade later, on August 25, 2023, Miley reclaimed the date on her own terms by releasing Used to Be Young, a song that looked back at the wildness, judgment and reinvention surrounding her twenties. The timing was intentional. She was connecting the woman she had become to the younger version of herself whose most dramatic transformation had unfolded on that same date. August 25 had become a kind of personal marker—part wound, part milestone, part reminder that the moments that change a life are not always the ones a person would choose.

Its family meaning made the date even more layered. Billy Ray was born on August 25, and Miley later wrote him a song called Secrets as a birthday gift, bringing in musicians associated with Fleetwood Mac to help record it. Dolly’s connection to the Cyrus family stretched back even further. Billy Ray had known her for decades, and Dolly became Miley’s godmother, mentor and the woman she affectionately called “Aunt Dolly.” She defended Miley during some of the most controversial stages of her career, appeared with her on Hannah Montana, sang with her as an adult and repeatedly encouraged her to become her own person rather than a more acceptable version of herself. So when Dolly’s death was announced on August 25, 2026, the coincidence carried a weight that went well beyond celebrity news. The date Miley had once chosen to symbolize reflection and growth had suddenly become associated with the loss of one of the people who had helped guide that growth.

Dolly’s death also transformed August 25 into a moment of national mourning. Tributes came from across entertainment and politics, emphasizing not only her music but the Imagination Library, her support for medical research and the unusual ability she maintained to be loved across ideological lines. Donald Trump announced that U.S. flags would be lowered to half-staff through September 1, while Barack Obama and George W. Bush praised the scale of her cultural and philanthropic impact. Jane Fonda remembered the private Dolly—mischievous, deeply thoughtful and fiercely compassionate—while Billy Ray shared that Dolly had recently sent him a personal message telling him she loved him “with her whole heart.” The day therefore carried two realities at once for Miley: it was already a date woven through the history of her own life, and it had now become the day the wider world said goodbye to someone who had been part of her family story almost from the beginning.

There is no mystical explanation required for a date to accumulate meaning. Sometimes a calendar simply becomes the place where memory keeps returning. For Miley, August 25 has held a first major heartbreak, the most explosive image change of her career, the arrival of Wrecking Ball, her father’s birthday, the release of a song about looking back at who she used to be, and now the death of Dolly Parton. None of those moments means the same thing, yet together they trace the strange architecture of a life lived publicly: love, controversy, family, reinvention, grief and survival sharing the same square on the calendar. When Miley chose August 25 for Used to Be Young, she was intentionally turning an already complicated date into one of reflection. Three years later, the date gave her something new to reflect on without asking permission. Some days disappear as soon as they pass. August 25, for Miley Cyrus, seems destined to keep returning.