Miley Cyrus wanted to bring "happiness and joy" back to Billy Ray Cyrus' life before they sorted out their rift

Speaking to Monica Lewinsky on her Reclaiming podcast, she said: "What did you call your decade? Dark decade? Yeah, we had one of those.

"Half of us weren't speaking to each other at one point and we cleaned all that up."

Miley explained she felt "a lot of loyalty" to mom Tish after her parents divorced, leaving her relationship with the Achy Breaky Heart singer in a "mess".

She said: "In that situation, I watched what happens when you don't clean things up as they're happening.

"They really do stack, and then all of a sudden you go, 'Oh my god, it's been 10 years, and this is a mess that I barely even know how to start.' This is emotional hoarding."

The 31-year-old star felt it was important to have a "good time" with her dad before they began to explore their issues together.

She said: "I just kind of bust through the pile that's stacked, and just go, 'I'm here. You're here. Let's start by having a good time together.

"And then as we start bringing some happiness and joy into each other's life, then we'll just be in a better place to have these conversations. 'Cause I'd rather get it balanced first."

As a result, Miley spent a part of this year personally "putting those lines of communication back together."

The Flowers hitmaker admitted it hadn't been easy because the whole family wasn't cut out for group therapy.

She joked: "We're so messy we didn't even do any of that. To get each other in a room to even get to counseling would have been a war. So, it was easier to just go, 'White flag.'

"I always wanted my family to feel like I was the safe place that I always had the white flag when they came to talk to me."

Elsewhere in the interview, Miley - who has siblings Brandi, 38, Trace, 36, Christopher, 33, Braison, 31, and 25-year-old Noah - admitted her siblings felt "humiliated" by her sexy public persona.

Reflecting on 2013, when she caused controversy with her naked appearance in her 'Wrecking Ball' video and twerking on stage with Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards, she said: "That was the time where I just got hit so hard and I was so embarrassed.

"There was even a time where my brother and sister didn't want to go to school because of how humiliated they were to be related to me.

"I remember my brother at one point he was saying, 'I don't judge you, but you could understand how hard it is for me to go to school, and you be my sister.' I was a hard sibling to have as a little girl, so I was like 'All right we're even.' "