Don't call Miley Cyrus' relationship with Kaitlynn Carter a "summer fling." Though Cyrus began dating Cody Simpson shortly after breaking up with the Hills: New Beginnings star, Carter shared how meaningful their relationship was in a new essay.
Carter and Brody Jenner, who she married in a ceremony on Indonesian island Sumba (though reportedly not legally), ended their relationship this summer. Their split came at around the same time as that of Cyrus and husband Liam Hemsworth. Shortly after, Carter and Cyrus were spotted kissing on a girls’ trip to Italy. Following the vacation, they seemed inseparable, with Cyrus taking the reality star as her date to the VMAs. Alas, after a few months together, they split, and Cyrus went on to fall for longtime pal Simpson over acai bowls.
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Carter wrote that she fell “in love” with Cyrus in ELLE, after initially going on the trip to Italy as friends.
“Shortly thereafter, as my friend and I spent that August traveling through Europe together and trying to move past our respective break-ups, my first and only romance with a woman was born,” Carter wrote. “I fell just as hard for her as I had the older man [I had dated] so many years before. It was that same familiar force of nature; I didn’t have to think about a thing or overanalyze. It just happened and it felt exactly right.”
Carter added that she and Cyrus were friends for three years, but until that trip, it had never occurred to her to “think of [Cyrus] in a romantic sense.” Spencer Pratt wrote in a recap of The Hills: New Beginnings for Cosmopolitan that his co-star Carter “already had something going on with [Cyrus during the filming of the reality series] — maybe not physically, but definitely emotionally.”
Carter credited the “short-lived” relationship with Cyrus with helping her explore her sexuality in a way that she never felt comfortable doing before.
“Although the relationship with my friend was often referenced in the media as merely a ‘summer fling’ or a ‘same-sex affair,’ it was so much more than that,” Carter wrote. “This was a profound journey of self-discovery. For the first time, I listened to myself, forgot about the ‘norm’, and lived. I hope that everyone, when given the chance, takes the time to understand who exactly their most authentic selves are, untethered from what we may have been taught to believe.”
After her relationship with Cyrus, the next chapter of Carter’s life is still unwritten.