Since she became an adult, Miley Cyrus’ career has been defined by pushing the boundaries of what people might have expected of her as the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and the lead of Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana. Her fans already know that she doesn’t really fit into any one box when it comes to what kind of performer and celebrity she is. And apparently, even aliens from another planet have taken notice, since the star claimed in a 2020 interview that she was once "chased down" by some sort of UFO. Read on to find out what Cyrus said about her unexplainable experience and how it's continued to affect her.
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Cyrus opened up about the encounter in a 2020 interview.
DFree/ShutterstockWhile Cyrus has made many outlandish moves that have caused controversy over the years, by the time she sat down with fashion designer Rick Owens for Interview magazine in 2020, her public image was comparatively tame. When the former child star opened up about her UFO encounter, she had six solo albums under her belt and was making headlines for “finding herself,” as Elle put it in 2019, rather than apologizing for cyber-bullying Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato in 2008 or for her insensitive comments about hip-hop music and culture in 2017.
During their discussion, Owens and Miley talked about the new music she was recording, being creative during the coronavirus, and living on the road, which brought them to extraterrestrial life. The designer told a story about staying on a ranch near Area 51 for his 57th birthday, which is when Cyrus asked him if he believes in aliens.
She was driving through California when it happened.
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock"I don’t really, but it seems a little arrogant to assume there’s nobody else but us," Owens responded to Cyrus' question about alien life, to which the singer replied, "That's what I [expletive] think!" She then went into the details of what she believes was her brush with something from another planet, though she didn't indicate exactly when this brush occurred.
“I was driving through San Bernardino with my friend, and I got chased down by some sort of UFO," Cyrus said. "I’m pretty sure about what I saw, but I’d also bought weed wax from a guy in a van in front of a taco shop, so it could have been the weed wax. But the best way to describe it is a flying snowplow. It had this big plow in the front of it and was glowing yellow. I did see it flying, and my friend saw it, too. There were a couple of other cars on the road and they also stopped to look, so I think what I saw was real."
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She also claimed she "made eye contact" with an alien.
Erik Voake/Getty ImagesWhether something was really there or she was having some sort of weed wax hallucination, the sighting took Cyrus off-guard. She said that she was "shaken for like, five days," and “couldn’t really look at the sky the same,” because she was afraid "they might come back." But when Owens asked her if she felt threatened, the former child star said no.
"I didn’t feel threatened at all, actually, but I did see a being sitting in the front of the flying object," she answered. "It looked at me and we made eye contact, and I think that’s what really shook me, looking into the eyes of something that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. But you’re so right to say that it’s a form of narcissism to think that we’re the only things that could be in this vast universe."
Other celebrities have spoken out about their own encounters.
DFree/ShutterstockCoincidentally, the same week as Cyrus’ interview with Owens, fellow singer and Disney alum Lovato posted on Instagram that she had been spending time in Joshua Tree with ufologist Steven Greer. “Over the past couple months I have dug deep into the science of consciousness and experienced not only peace and serenity like I’ve never known but I also have witnessed the most incredibly profound sightings both in the sky as well as feet away from me," Lovato wrote in the since-deleted post, as reported by Glamour. She also indicated that she believes making contact is key to Earth's survival. "This planet is on a very negative path towards destruction but WE can change that together," the star continued. "If we were to get 1% of the population to meditate and make contact, we would force our governments to acknowledge the truth about extraterrestrial life among us and change our destructive habits destroying our planet."
Other stars have been vocal about their own beliefs in life beyond our planet. Nick Jonas, for example, told Seth Meyers in 2015 that he saw lights in the sky as child that has left him a “firm believer” in extraterrestrials, while country star Kacey Musgraves told Us Weekly the same year that she's seen "several UFOs" in her lifetime. Speaking to Jimmy Kimmel in 2020, Mad Men star January Jones said that she believes she saw a spaceship in the skies over Iowa when she was in her 20s. Post Malone, Kurt Russell, and Aaron Rodgers are among other stars have also claimed to have spotted aliens or UFOs, per Buzzfeed.
Seeing as NBC4 Los Angeles reported that California boasted the most UFO sightings of any state in 2022, maybe it’s not so odd that that so many celebrities have had run-ins.
