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ACHY & BREAKY

Country Legend, 64, Reveals Life-Threatening Health Scare

“It was my worst nightmare.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJun 10, 2026, 5:51 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 10, 2026, 5:51 PM EDT

Updated Jun 10, 2026, 5:51 PM EDTPublished Jun 10, 2026, 5:51 PM EDT

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Grammy-winning country singer Billy Ray Cyrus was hospitalized after a major health scare.

Cyrus, 64, told People on Wednesday that he suffered from sepsis in 2024—a battle that nearly cost him his life.

“I don’t know exactly how it evolved. It was my worst nightmare,” he said, explaining that it made his entire body swell.

Sepsis is caused by infection and is potentially life-threatening, according to the Mayo Clinic.

He was treated in an environment that was painfully familiar.

“Two years before that, my mom had died in that hospital, in the very floor that I was on,” Cyrus recalled. His mother, Ruth Ann Casto, died in 2022 at 85.

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The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer recalled that during his hospitalization, the medical personnel suggested he get his “affairs in order.”

But, to the surprise of even his doctors, Cyrus recovered fully.

“I had a prayer answered,” he said. “That’s a miracle.”

Afterward, Cyrus experienced vocal paralysis and went through a period where he thought he might never sing again.

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He said he found the strength to keep training his voice by listening to a song by two of his children.

“Noah’s got that one song, ‘Don’t Put It All on Me,’ that honestly saved my life,” he said.

The song, which his 26-year-old daughter Noah Cyrus released in 2025 with the Fleet Foxes, was written by his son, Braison Cyrus, 32.

A part of the lyrics goes: “Some days, we might fall apart / But we’re never broken.”

Cyrus is also the father of Grammy-winning singer Miley Cyrus, 33, as well as Christopher Cody, 34; Trace Cyrus, 37, and Brandi Cyrus, 39.

His five-year-old grandson, Braison’s son Bear, also gave Cyrus strength.

“In this very broken moment of my life, my little grandson Bear looked at me and said, ‘Try again.’ And up until that moment, he had never spoken to me at all. I wasn’t even sure if he knew my name,” he said.

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Adding, “In that moment, I thought, ‘He’s telling you something.’ Is it about love? Music? Somehow, I got to try again at both. So I’m learning to try again.”

When the struggles with his voice continued, his girlfriend of one year, Austin Powers star Elizabeth Hurley, 61, was there to help and push him.

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“Elizabeth would say to me, ‘Do you understand your voice is coming back?’” he recalled.

Adding, “She encouraged me to the point where she had me do The Masked Singer. And she said, ‘You need to do it to challenge yourself.’ And I thought, ‘God, why is she so smart?’”

Cyrus competed as “Owl” on the 14th season of the hit family show. He placed 11th.

Now, things with his health are looking up.

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“I’ve been singing every day. I feel so good about my voice,” he told the outlet.

Cyrus is releasing his first album in 14 years, The Hill, on June 16.

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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