Billy Ray Cyrus and Liz Hurley confirm engagement after year of dating

Billy Ray Cyrus and Elizabeth Hurley are engaged. The confirmation came quietly, the way these things often do in the age of social media—a photograph, a ring, a source willing to talk to the right outlet. Hurley posted an image showing a substantial diamond on her index finger, and within hours, the rumor had hardened into fact. Sources close to the couple told Page Six the engagement was real, and the ring was not costume jewelry. "She's filming 'The 'Burbs'; I hardly think this ring is a prop," one person said.

The pair have been dating for just over a year, having reconnected in February 2025 after first meeting three years earlier on the set of a Christmas film. They made their relationship public around Easter 2025, a reveal that caught many observers off guard. A country music star and a British actress and model seemed, on the surface, to belong to different worlds entirely. Yet both have spent decades navigating the particular pressures of fame, and both have learned something about resilience from it.

Hurley's son Damian, who has been present through much of her romantic life, signaled his approval almost immediately. He left comments on both the engagement photo and a subsequent Instagram post from Cyrus, offering celebratory emojis and a simple declaration: "SO EXCITED." Cyrus himself leaned into the moment with characteristic playfulness, posting about his new single and an upcoming NASCAR-themed performance in Phoenix. "This is the most fertile solid ground I have stood on in a long time," he wrote, before adding a ring emoji to a line about the show having "a ring to it."

For Cyrus, this will be his fourth marriage. He was previously married to Cindy Smith from 1986 to 1991, then to Tish Cyrus for three decades until their 2023 split, and most recently to Australian singer Firerose in 2023—a union that lasted less than a year and ended amid accusations of abuse, which Cyrus denied. For Hurley, this represents a second marriage. She was married to Indian businessman Arun Nayar from 2007 to 2011, and was engaged to late Australian cricketer Shane Warne from 2011 to 2013. She had a long-term relationship with actor Hugh Grant that lasted from 1987 to 2000, during which she had her son Damian with producer Steve Bing.

When asked about the seeming mismatch between them, Hurley has been direct about the unexpected compatibility. In an interview with SheerLuxe earlier this month, she noted that "there are a lot more similarities than you'd think." She joked about their identical hair—"apart from his beard, we're actually like twins"—but the deeper point was serious. Both have lived through the particular intensity of show business, and both have emerged with similar values. They spend time together in the countryside, birdwatching, sitting by bonfires, working on projects in the garden. The activities sound almost deliberately ordinary, a deliberate choice by two people accustomed to extraordinary scrutiny.

Cyrus himself reflected on what drew them together in an interview with People in June. "There was something in the opposites of us, I think, that maybe not only got other people's attention but even our own," he said. But he also acknowledged a deeper recognition. "I've never seen anybody that, in some ways, has more in common with the insanity that I have lived through in this crazy show business." That shared experience—the weight of being watched, the peculiar loneliness of fame, the difficulty of building a life that feels real—may matter more than any surface-level difference between a country musician and a British actress. The engagement suggests they believe it does.