Miley Cyrus, the 32-year-old pop star who rose to fame on Disney's "Hannah Montana," recently shared details about a "traumatizing" medical incident she experienced during her time touring as the fictional pop star.
Speaking on the "Every Single Album" podcast on June 6, 2025, Cyrus recalled a time during her "Hannah Montana" tour in 2007 when she was diagnosed with tachycardia. Tachycardia is a condition where the heart rate exceeds the normal resting rate. Cyrus stated that she didn't realize she had the condition until she was performing in front of a large crowd. She explained, "When I was on the Hannah tour, I didn't know that I had tachycardia until I was in front of 100,000 people and my heart started going bananas."
Initially, those around her dismissed her symptoms as simple low blood sugar, offering her crackers. However, Cyrus knew something more serious was happening. "Everyone was like 'You just have low blood sugar, here's a cracker!' and I was like 'No, I'm telling you my heart is going at these different speeds and I can't control it. Something is wrong!'" she recounted.
As a result, she was rushed to a pediatrician and had to wear heart monitors while performing. "I got rushed to the paediatrician because I'm a child and they were like 'You're going to wear all these heart monitors while you perform' so I had two things - I had a heart murmur, a leaky valve, and I had tachycardia," Cyrus explained. She described those moments as "traumatizing" due to the medical nature of the situation. Adding to her frustration, medical professionals initially brushed off her concerns as mere nervousness. "And they were like 'You're nervous!' and I was like 'I don't think these are nerves...'" she said.
Eventually, doctors realized the severity of her condition. "So then I had to wear these little monitors and someone from the hospital was watching me do my concert and they were like 'Oh no, you're just leaking blood. You've probably had this your entire life and you never knew because you've never been in a situation like this...'"
In her 2009 memoir, "Miles to Go," Cyrus also discussed her experience with tachycardia, noting that it wasn't life-threatening but bothered her, especially during performances. "The type of tachycardia I have isn't dangerous. It won't hurt me, but it does bother me," she wrote. "There is never a time onstage when I'm not thinking about my heart."
While Cyrus acknowledges that she doesn't consider the tachycardia incident to be a major trauma compared to other events in her life, she admits that it was still a traumatizing experience. "I don't mark it as trauma because in my real life there have been so many more traumatic things that have happened that are, like, real, but I think somewhere I am traumatised," she stated.
This isn't the only health issue Cyrus has spoken about recently. In May 2025, she revealed that she had a ruptured ovarian cyst while hosting her 2022 New Year's Eve special. Despite the "extremely excruciating" pain, she continued with the show. She also mentioned having a polyp on her vocal cords, making live performances challenging. Furthermore, Cyrus has been open about her journey with sobriety, citing it as a crucial part of her life.
