Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose settle their contentious divorce: ‘A sigh of relief’

The two were married for seven months.

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose have settled their contentious divorce, nearly three months after the “Achy Breaky Heart” musician first filed to dissolve their short marriage.

“This past Friday the parties reached a settlement agreement at mediation to dissolve their 7-month marriage, and the Court declared the parties divorced this morning. Mr. Cyrus is relieved to put this nightmare behind him,” Cyrus’ attorneys, Rose Palermo and Jason Talley of Cheatham Palermo & Garrett, said in a statement given to Entertainment Weekly on Monday.

Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose.GETTY(2)

In a written statement of his own, the crooner said, “I’m just very relieved… and giving thanks today to breathe a sigh of relief. This has been absolutely the most crazy insane scam I have ever heard of.

Let alone the fact I’m right in the center and basically the target of the scheme. It’s unfortunate… it played out this way … not only was it a web of lies that put me in physical danger …. It was a matter of the heart. Love is blind … that’s for sure.”

Cyrus first filed for divorce from Firerose, whose real name is Johanna Hodges, on May 22, citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct. He also sought an outright annulment of the marriage on the grounds of fraud.

From the outset, the split was volatile, with both sides accusing the other of abuse and lies, among other things, in separate court filings.

Weeks after Cyrus’ filing, on June 14, Firerose submitted her own divorce filing, which characterized her as “the victim of extreme verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse,” and claimed that she felt “unsafe” living with Cyrus, who allegedly “continuously launched verbal assaults” forcing her “into an emotional and psychological prison.”

The complaint also stated that “Wife was subjected to Husband’s persistent drug use accompanied with the consumption of marijuana which made Husband unpredictable and volatile towards Wife.” In a July 24 social media post after audio of a tense conversation with his estranged wife was publicly leaked, Cyrus claimed Firerose “was trying to take over my career, my life and usurp the Cyrus name for her own gain.”

For her part, a source close to Firerose told PEOPLE on Monday that the musician chose to “walk away without fighting for money in order to be done with the volatile relationship and anything having to do with Billy.”

The source added, “If this went to trial, Firerose and her team would have provided a significant amount of evidence to prove he fabricated a narrative that would benefit his public image. There is no doubt she would have been awarded the divorce, but it was much more important to her that this continuous smear campaign end.”

The former couple first took their relationship public in 2022, months after Cyrus split from his ex-wife Tish Cyrus. They first met on the set of his daughter Miley Cyrus’ Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, more than a decade ago. They married last October after a yearlong engagement.