Miley Cyrus Shares Why She Feels Awkward Calling Maxx Morando Her Fiancé

Miley Cyrus and Maxx Morando at the 2025 Oscars.
Credit:

Mike Coppola/Getty

Key Details

• Miley Cyrus expressed discomfort with calling Maxx Morando her fiancé during a recent interview.
• She discussed how their engagement coincided with a significant period in her life.
• People confirmed their engagement in December 2025.

Miley Cyrus is adjusting to her new title as fiancée to Maxx Morando. In a recent interview at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards, Cyrus, 33, admitted to feeling “cringed out” when using the term to describe Morando, 27.

“I’m kind of dorkiest with stuff like that,” she remarked, highlighting her playful approach to their engagement.

Speaking further about their engagement, Cyrus noted it arrived at what she describes as the “perfect time” in her life. This timing is intertwined with her work on the forthcoming film Avatar: Fire and Ash, which features her song “Dream as One.” “But for me, getting to be involved in this at this time, because that’s really what James makes the pillar of his films, is relationships, no matter what they look like,” she explained, referencing the film’s director, James Cameron.

Maxx Morando and Miley Cyrus at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

Francis Specker/CBS via Getty

“So to be able to show up joyful and experience love in my own way is just perfectly aligned,” Cyrus continued. “It just fell into my life at the perfect time. I feel like I’m in a good place to support the message of what this film’s about.”

Cyrus also discussed her older sister Brandi’s recent engagement to Matt Southcombe, which Brandi announced on Instagram on December 26. “We’re all like, just grounding it down,” she noted, emphasizing her family’s down-to-earth nature despite their public personas.

People confirmed on December 2 that Cyrus and Morando, a drummer for the band Liily, became engaged after four years of dating. The announcement followed Cyrus’ appearance at the Avatar: Fire and Ash world premiere in Los Angeles, where she showcased a diamond ring on her left hand.

Maxx Morando and Miley Cyrus at the ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ premiere in L.A. on Dec. 1, 2025; Miley Cyrus’ engagement ring.

Kevin Winter/WireImage; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

In a conversation about their engagement, Cyrus revealed what has surprised her about the process. “The detail that I can share is that for us, our privacy and us kind of keeping it small has been something that I’ve been astounded that I’ve actually been able to have and being able to kind of have more choice,” she stated. She added that her age has contributed to her desire for privacy in sharing details of her personal life.

On December 4, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Cyrus humorously addressed her engagement, linking it to her ongoing “phobia” of paper. “Christmas, I’m known as a little bit of a Grinch because I have a qualm with Christmas. I hate paper,” she told Kimmel. She elaborated, “It’s getting worse and so there does need to be some sort of intervention, and I am gonna look into some sort of EMDR, being hypnotized about it because it is affecting my everyday life.”

Her lighthearted take continued as she explained that Morando helps her manage this quirk, quipping, “Someone gets an Amazon box, I’m sick, because the cardboard is the worst of it all. It’s extra dry and there’s packaging within it. That’s really why I got engaged, because I just make my fiancé open all the packages outside.”