Miley Cyrus explains why she's taking back her apology over topless photo 10 years ago
Miley Cyrus is not sorry about posing topless at age 15.
The singer, 25, took back her apology for the near-nude photo published in Vanity Fair in 2008. Over the weekend, she tweeted a photo of the New York Post's cover from that time, with a headline that read "Miley's Shame."
"IM NOT SORRY," she wrote, along with an expletive and the hashtag "#10yearsago."
Appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tuesday, Cyrus explained why she felt the need to address something that happened 10 years ago.
"It popped up on my little Instagram feed, and I thought, 'Hey, telling them to go f--- themselves seems fun right now,'" Cyrus quipped. "I was bored!"
The "Climb" singer was especially incensed by the Post's headline.
"I think a lot of things have changed, and I think the conversation has changed a lot," she explained. "Something that I really thought about was, 'Sure, some people thought that I did something wrong in their eyes.' But I think it was really wrong to put on top of something that this is 'my shame' and that I should be ashamed of myself. That's not a nice thing to tell someone they should be ashamed of themselves -- besides Donald Trump."
Cyrus explained that there was nothing shameful about the way photographer Annie Leibovitz took the photo.
"For me, when this photo was taken -- and I know this will probably get turned around, too -- but when this photo was taken, my little sister was here on set," Cyrus said. "She actually was sitting with Annie Leibovitz taking photos, too, and there was nothing sexualized about this on set."
She continued, "And it was everyone else's poisonous thoughts and minds that ended up turning this into something that it wasn't meant to be. So, actually I shouldn't be ashamed -- they should be."
Nonetheless, Cyrus, then the star of Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana," issued an apology at the time. She told Kimmel she was forced to do it.
"I'm sure somebody told me to. But you know what? That's why I don't do what people tell me to anymore, because that idea sucked!" the pop star said. "They want to know why I come on TV shows with no shirt on. Blame them!"
She added, "I think at that time I just wanted this to go away, and I think I also was trying to balance and understand what being a role model is."
Since then, her definition of role model has changed.
"To me, I think being a role model has been my free spirited-ness and sometimes my unapologetic attitude for decisions that I feel comfortable with," she said.
The Disney Channel and ABC News are owned by parent company Disney
