Miley Cyrus appeared for an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, December 4th, and she dove deep into her phobia of paper.
Kimmel began the interview by congratulating Cyrus on her recent engagement to fiancé Maxx Morando, and joked that a proposal probably made for a good Christmas gift for her. Cyrus countered by saying she’s “a little bit of a grinch” around Christmas, specifically because of her fear of paper. “The real problem for me with paper is when people have dry hands and they touch paper,” Cyrus told Kimmel in between gags, “And then it’s Christmas, it’s cold, and everyone’s hands are dry and they’re all touching paper!”
Cyrus continued, explaining how she can’t even open letters, she won’t read books that aren’t on a Kindle or iPad, and she can’t even stand the paper cue cards that Kimmel reads off of. She did, however, emphasize that it’s mostly dry paper (or really, dry hands touching paper) that freaks her out — wax paper is smooth enough to the touch that she doesn’t mind it, and she also doesn’t have a problem with rolling papers.
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But pretty much any other paper product is off limits for Cyrus — even cardboard, which Cyrus deemed to be “the worst.” When asked where the phobia comes from, Cyrus pointed to repeated childhood road trips from her native Nashville to Canada with her family, where she’d be stuck in the backseat with her brothers for long stretches. “My Mom would be driving and it would be complete chaos, because all of us would fight for the entire 14 hours, and then to really torture me, [my brothers] would rub paper together while I was in the backseat.”
Though she had a few visceral reactions to even discussing her fear of paper during the interview, Cyrus acknowledged that the phobia is “getting worse” as she gets older and is, at this point, actually affecting her quality of life. “There does need to be some sort of intervention,” Cyrus said. “I am going to look into some maybe EMDR, being hypnotized about it, because it is affecting my everyday life.”
Elsewhere in her chat with Kimmel, Cyrus discussed her recent contribution to the soundtrack of Avatar: Fire and Ash, “Dream As One,” and her experience working with James Cameron. Watch the full interview segment below.
Cyrus released her ninth album, Something Beautiful, back in May. We named her track “Easy Lover” as one of the Best Songs of 2025.