Miley Cyrus Says She Carries “Guilt and Shame” For Her Twerking Era

Miley Cyrus’ twerking antics, wrecking balls, and buzzed hair may have been a decade ago, but they are forever ingrained in pop culture’s lexicon. And while her most recent album Endless Summer Vacation spawned the record smashing single Flowers, her 2013 project Bangerz (which featured party anthem “We Can’t Stop” and the internet breaking “Wrecking Ball”) was quite the headline-grabber.

The star has been two years sober, something that has afforded her a new found sense of clarity and reflection amidst her latest swell of success. Though her rebellious antics seem like a lifetime ago, she holds some guilt pertaining to her actions—but also acknowledges that growing up in the spotlight led to her being harshly, and sometimes unfairly, criticized by the public.

“I carried some guilt and shame around myself for years because of how much controversy and upset I really caused,” Cyrus explained in an interview with British Vogue. “Now that I’m an adult, I realize how harshly I was judged. I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realize that I would never harshly judge a child.”

Cyrus goes on to say that her at times questionable actions were an effort to distance herself from the persona of Hannah Montana, the Disney character that Cyrus had been personifying on screen since 13. “I’m actually not an attention-seeking person, sitting here as a 30-year-old grown woman,” she said. “I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character I had played. Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. ‘I’m not my parents.’ ‘I am who I am.’”

Along with her latest album, the 30-year-old star has been experiencing all sorts of success this year. She hosted a New Years Eve special on NBC with guests Paris Hilton and Dolly Parton, has been seen at major fashion events like Versace’s Los Angeles show, and recently released an intimate video for her latest single, “Jaded.”