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Elizabeth Hurley Shares New Glimpse Into Romance With Billy Ray Cyrus
Elizabeth Hurley has always loved the country.
So feel free to tell her heart: The English model-actress coupling up with Billy Ray Cyrus after sharing a few scenes with him in the 2022 film Christmas in Paradise isn't that hard to understand.
"We just laughed, and it was at a time I wasn’t laughing a lot," Cyrus, 63, shared on Apple Music Country's The Ty Bentli Show after they hard-launched their romance on Easter. "The oddest part was, first, how much we laughed. Second, I figured we were so different but in some very strange way we had way more in common than we had different."
The musician's smile may have gone missing amid his divorce from Tish Cyrus after 30 years of marriage. But though the father of six was apparently bedazzled by Hurley's charms, his achy breaky heart wasn't done going through the ringer just yet: Cyrus got engaged to Australian singer Firerose in August 2022, they tied the knot in October 2023 and their divorce was finalized 10 months later.
Hurley, 59, had experienced her own share of heartache over the years, as well, ranging from more private breakups to international-scandal-hall-of-fame-level betrayal.
So at the end of the day, these two may just be happy to kick back and enjoy the here and now together, the simple pleasures Hurley takes part in at her estate in the West Midlands county of Herefordshire sounding pretty complementary to Cyrus' life in the Nashville area.
Elizabeth Hurley/Instagram
"I love everything about the country—the fresh air, the peace, my dogs and my garden," the Austin Powers star, who's mom to 23-year-old son Damian Hurley, told Liz Earle Wellbeing in 2023. "After enduring [the drive from London on] the M4, I usually have a stiff drink, light a fire and collapse on the sofa. Before bed, I'll have a long bath with lots of scented bath oil and a good book."
Moreover, she noted, "If I’m feeling stressed, I like silence. I turn off my phone and soak in the tub with my eyes shut, having made everyone promise to leave me alone for a while."
While Hurley has been involved with her share of international men of mystery, her personal life hasn't been front and center recently the way Cyrus' has. A rift with at least some of his kids, including Miley Cyrus, coincided with his relatively brief relationship with Firerose, while ex Tish remarried actor Dominic Purcell in 2023.
Elizabeth Hurley/Instagram
But at least once Cyrus' romance with Hurley made headlines, he seems to have received Damian's endorsement.
"It would be fantastic to fall in love with someone wonderful," Hurley told Red magazine in 2019. "But I’ve really enjoyed the past couple of years and it’s made me realize how important it is to find someone who shares similar tastes. I think that’s because I’ve had some time to do entirely what I want to do."
During COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the Elizabeth Hurley Beach swimwear designer leaned even further into her treasured domestic life—"Secretly, I'd much rather be gardening than doing anything else," she told Hello! that April. "I've been outside doing things for at least five hours a day"—but also said that she wouldn't mind if she could get a romance to bloom in the near future, either.
"I'd love to fall madly in love with someone, which certainly won't happen whilst I'm locked down with blood relatives," Hurley said. "Maybe when it's over I'll put my headlamps on full beam and make an effort."
"Father Christmas Is Back" (Netflix)
What she did do was dive into acting again, cranking out the movies Father Christmas Is Back, its fateful sequel Christmas in Paradise—featuring Cyrus as country artist Jimmy Love—and Christmas in the Caribbean.
"We did very few scenes together," Cyrus told Ty Bentil, "but the couple times we were in the same scene there was a chemistry there."
He and Hurley admittedly didn't talk for two years, but after his marriage to Firerose imploded—Cyrus initially tried to have it annulled, but ended up filing for divorce—he got a text from a number he didn't know.
"For me, at a certain point it was like, you can’t get knocked down any flatter than laying on your back when life is kicking you," the "Achy Breaky Heart" singer recalled. "And in this moment… a friend reached out.”
Elizabeth Hurley/Instagram
The message read, "'Hey, it looks like life might be a little bit tough and just wanted you to know I’m in your corner; you’ve got a friend in your corner.' So, I text back, I go, ‘Who is this?’ And it’s like, 'Elizabeth Hurley.'"
He had "no expectations of where we go from here," Cyrus added, but he was happier than he'd been in a long time with the "impressively brilliant" Hurley.
And Hurley, who on April 27 posted photos from a "Tennessee weekend" with her new love, is along for the ride after taking a long break to recharge.
"All of my boyfriends, husbands and fiancés have been my best friends, so it’s a terrible gap they leave,” she told Red. “I think that’s when you learn the importance of having other sources of comfort, fun and intimacy. You feel cozy with people that have been your best friends for 30 years, but occasionally you’ll meet someone who you click with—it’s important to keep yourself open to that.”
So while she and Cyrus may have no particular destination in mind, here's a map of the road Hurley traveled to get here:
Dave Benett/Getty Images
Hugh Grant
Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant were both up-and-comers when they met making the 1988 Spanish film Rowing With the Wind, in which Grant portrayed Romantic icon Lord Byron.
"Hugh did look particularly fine in those cream britches," Hurley jested in an interview. "But I think I might have liked him anyway. There was an instant rapport. He made me laugh."
The longtime couple seemingly shot to global stardom simultaneously, Grant for his breakout performance in 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral and Hurley, by then a major model, for the still-iconic Versace safety-pin gown she wore to the film's London premiere.
So wasn't the globe shocked when Grant was arrested in June 1995 for lewd conduct with a prostitute (and later was sentenced to two years' unsupervised probation after pleading no contest), and his publicity tour for the warm 'n' fuzzy rom-com Nine Months turned into an apology odyssey?
But Hurley stood by him, including at the film's premiere—"She has been real supportive and we're going to try and work it out," Grant said on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno—and they ultimately stayed together until 2000.
"I loved everything I was doing, and I think I just sort of, you know—you know, I've got great friends, great family," Hurley said on Larry King Live in 2000, reflecting on how she fluourished post-scandal. "And so, you know, everything turned out OK in the end."
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Hugh Grant
They remained super-close, Hurley calling Grant "my best friend for life" during an appearance on E!'s Daily Pop in 2018.
"The thing is, if someone’s lovely, how could you not be on good terms with them?" she told the Daily Mail's You Magazine in 2017, explaining how she stayed good friends with most of her exes. 'None of us has ever done anything bad to one another."
In December 2024, Hurely conceded they weren't as close anymore, but not because they had soured on each other.
"I mean, he's married with five children," she noted during the Bazaar At Work summit in December 2024. "I hardly ever see him, but he's still very close to my heart." (And she is godmother to one of his kids, as well.)
Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock
Steve Bing
Hurley gave birth to son Damian Hurley in April 2002, after her romantic relationship with his dad, financier and producer Steve Bing, had ended.
Bing wouldn't initially admit to being Damian's father, but a DNA test proved it that June.
"I have always made it perfectly clear that I don’t want any financial help from him whatsoever," Hurley said in a statement at the time, per the Daily Mail. "The money is not wanted or welcome." (Bing had said, per the BBC, that once paternity was confirmed he would "generously support" his son.)
When Bing died by suicide in June 2020 at the age of 55. Hurley wrote on Instagram that she was "saddened beyond belief" by his death.
"It is a terrible end," she continued. "Our time together was very happy and I’m posting these pictures because although we went through some tough times, it’s the good, wonderful memories of a sweet, kind man that matter. In the past year we had become close again. We last spoke on our son’s 18th birthday."
Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images; Glenn James/NBAE/Getty Images
Steve Nash
Hurley briefly teamed up with NBA point guard Steve Nash in 2001.
"They just vibed," Nash's agent told Sports Illustrated at the time. "They ended up hanging out, and there was some chemistry. The relationship is authentic."
Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images
Arun Nayar
Hurley wed businessman Arun Nayar in 2007 after four years of dating.
She announced their split on X (formerly Twitter) in December 2010: "For the record, my husband Arun & I separated a few months ago. Our close family & friends were aware of this."
Their divorce was finalized the following year. But true to form, the exes remained friends, Nayar attending several public events with Hurley and Damian post-split.
"Hugh and Arun are very important in our lives," Hurley told You in 2017.
Moreover, she shared, "I absolutely adore his mother; she’s German so we call her Mutti. In India I stay with her and when she’s here she lives around the corner, so I see her nearly every day. Twice a year I go to Mumbai, where Arun grew up and his brother still lives. I have caftans made there for my beachwear company, so I go to supervise production."
Don Arnold/WireImage
Shane Warne
Hurley got engaged to Australian cricket star Shane Warne in 2011 after a whirlwind courtship, but they split up two years later.
"It was a very sad time for both of us," Hurley told Hello! in 2014. "Love isn't a switch that you can turn on or off at will and of course I still love him—we are part of each other's history."
So they remained, the Austin Powers star telling You three years later, "Shane is still a good friend; we were texting each other last night. Damian loves Shane’s three kids, so we’ll always be connected to each other in one way or another."
And Warne only had kind words about his ex-fiancée during a 2018 appearance on the U.K.'s Lorraine.
"When we were together we both had a great time and unfortunately it didn’t work out," he said. "It wasn’t something that she did wrong or I did wrong. It was just one of those things that fizzled out. We’re still great friends now and we still keep in touch. You know, it was the happiest time in my life."
Sadly, Warne died in March 2022 of heart disease. He was 52.
"I feel like the sun has gone behind a cloud forever," Hurley wrote on Instagram at the time. "RIP my beloved Lionheart."
Instagram / Elizabeth Hurley / Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus
Talking to Red magazine in the spring of 2019, Hurley acknowledged it would be "fantastic to fall in love with someone wonderful."
Five years later, she hard-launched her relationship with Billy Ray Cyrus in a joint Instagram post on Easter Sunday.
They met making the 2022 movie Christmas in Paradise and, according to Cyrus, definitely felt a spark before going their separate ways for two years.
Once his eight-month marriage to Australian singer Firerose ended in 2024, the Bedazzled actress reached out over text, Cyrus shared on The Ty Bentli Show April 24, 2025. And, while he didn't know where they were headed yet, "It’s been a long time since I’ve been this happy."
English (US)