Billy Ray Cyrus’ Australian wife Firerose was secretly married to an American actor before meeting the Achy Breaky Heart star, her parents have revealed – but only her closest friends and family knew.
The country singer married actor David Schoen Hodges years ago after swapping Australia for a new life in the US, long before she met Cyrus, 62.
But not even their own parents attended the wedding ceremony.
She and Hodges are believed to have first met in Los Angeles, when Firerose settled in the United States while trying to establish herself as an actress before turning to music.
The couple later split up, though they still follow each other on social media. He is now remarried, has a son and has a long list of minor film roles.
Firerose, 37, began life as Johanna Rosie Scholem and grew up as the middle child of three daughters in a suburban Jewish family home in Sydney’s affluent north.
He once boasted that he came from “a family of symphony musicians” and his mother Debbie was a professional violinist, but his father Stephen is a retired GP.
Her parents have now broken their silence, telling Daily Mail Australia how they lost contact with their daughter after she moved overseas to reinvent herself as Firerose.
Billy Ray Cyrus’ Australian wife Firerose (pictured together) was secretly married to an American actor before meeting the Achy Breaky Heart star – but only their close friends and family knew about it.
Actor David Schoen Hodges was married to Firerose before she met Billy Ray Cyrus
Firerose (second from left) is the middle child of three daughters born to Debbie and Stephen Scholem.
“We have nothing to hide… but we’ve had to ask ourselves if we want to get involved,” her mother told Daily Mail Australia.
“I think of Johanna as a bird that flew away. I often think of her when I’m on the terrace feeding the parrots.”
She said they were introduced to her first husband, Hodges, before the couple married, and were invited to the wedding but did not attend due to the family rift.
“We met him, he was a nice man, but we didn’t go to the wedding,” Scholem said.
His father admitted: “We’re basically estranged.”
Former friends have revealed that Firerose had a reputation as a party girl when she was a teenage student at Sydney’s Newtown High School of the Performing Arts.
“Firerose was always a problem for the family, he was a really wild kid, partying all the time,” a family friend told Daily Mail Australia.
After marrying Hodges, she took his last name as Johanna Hodges before reinventing herself as country singer Firerose.
Her mother added: “We were happy she kept her married name because that kept us out of it, until now.”
After becoming Firerose, she released a series of unsuccessful singles before Billy Ray Cyrus took her under his wing in 2021 to release her song, New Day.
At the time, she described him as her “lifelong friend and mentor,” but the relationship blossomed and soon turned romantic until the couple finally tied the knot last October.
But her second marriage lasted only seven months and Cyrus filed for divorce in May after exploding in anger when she found out about her first marriage.
This week, shocking new audio of Cyrus lashing out at Firerose was revealed, where she is heard calling her a “selfish fucking bitch” and a “fucking idiot.”
Daily Mail Australia reproduced the heartbreaking conversation with her parents, who admitted that they knew nothing about her life with Cyrus.
The couple say they only learned of his arrest, his U.S. citizenship granted last week and his apparent new Christian beliefs through media reports.
“We don’t know anything about her life in Tennessee. We don’t know anything about her relationship with Billy Ray,” Scholem said.
‘The fights between the two sound pretty distressing from both sides.’
But he added: “I imagine there was love between them at some point. Why else would they have gotten married?”
Father Stephen Scholem was seen pushing his granddaughter, Firerose’s niece, in a stroller near his home in Sydney’s north this week.
Firerose’s mother, Debbie Scholem, told Daily Mail Australia: “We have nothing to hide but we had to ask ourselves if we wanted to get involved.”
Cyrus referenced Firerose’s first husband in a recent Instagram post after audio of his explosive exchange with his ex-wife was made public.
“As the days went by, I realized something was wrong. And that was before I knew she was an imposter,” he wrote.
“I knew something was wrong. That was before I knew she was David Hodge’s ex-wife. That was before I knew her parents’ last name.
“I had no idea she had been arrested for felony residential burglary.”
He added: “Everything I thought I knew about her was a lie.”
‘See you in court.’
Both singers have made mutual accusations involving fraud, abuse and retaliation for a double mastectomy after Cyrus filed for divorce last May.
In return, Firerose alleges that Cyrus subjected her to “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse” during their brief marriage.
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The shocking audio of Cyrus’ rant also included a tirade against her daughter, pop star Miley Cyrus, calling her and her ex-wife and Miley’s mother “sluts” and “liars.”
Hours later, Miley shared a photo of herself hugging her mother Tish, 57, at a recent Gucci party in Los Angeles, in an apparent show of support.
The latest dispute comes after a judge granted a motion blocking Firerose from using Cyrus’ credit cards after he accused her of making “unauthorized charges.”
She officially became a U.S. citizen last week after living in the country for nearly two decades and seemed delighted with her new status.
“This wonderful country has been my home for 17 years. I couldn’t be more excited to become an American citizen!” she posted on social media.