Gus Kenworthy Reveals He Had a Heated Rivalry-Style Relationship with Miley Cyrus Before Coming Out as Gay

Olympic medalist and actor Gus Kenworthy is opening up about a “secret relationship” he had before he came out as gay which he hid with friend Miley Cyrus, comparing the experience to Heated Rivalry.

Kenworthy, a former Olympic freestyle skier who later appeared in projects like American Horror Story: 1984 and 80 for Brady, made the revelation during an interview with The New Yorker published on Sunday, Jan. 25.

The magazine had asked the Olympic athlete-turned-actor if he had seen Heated Rivalry, which centers on two ice hockey stars and their years-long secret romance with one another.

“I just finished,” Kenworthy told The New Yorker. “At first, I didn’t understand the big deal. It was fun to watch, but it was sort of smut. I honestly thought, All these thirsty gays! Y’all are just horny. Like, you could watch porn?”

Kenworthy continued: “People kept telling me, ‘Just wait — it tugs on the heartstrings.’ And then it did. The third episode changed things for me. I actually wrote a message to the show’s creator because I was so moved, and didn’t expect to be. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself reflected onscreen like that, in such a substantial way.”

The former Olympic silver medalist said “the parallels” between the show and his life “are kind of insane.” 

“I also had a secret relationship, with these clandestine meetings and hookups,” Kenworthy said. “And Miley Cyrus was my own Rose, this famous person that I was suddenly linked to, and as much as I kind of wanted it — because that’s the person you would want to be with if you’re straight, someone successful and beautiful and talented — it’s not the same as when you’re with a guy. And then the Scott Hunter character — I really related to him. He wanted to be out, but really, just truly felt like he couldn’t be, because of his circumstances. That was me for so many years. I had the same yearning — to be in love, to be public, and to not have to hide.”

Kenworthy came out in October 2015 during an interview with ESPN: The Magazine, one year after winning the silver medal in slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

“Never have I ever been prouder to call @guskenworthy my friend! (and he’s a bad ass f**king Olympic athlete),” Cyrus wrote on social media at the time. “He is showing all of us what it means to be courageous and PROUD of who we are! You have won so much more than any medal …. You have won FREEDOM!”

Cyrus went on to say she had “so much respect” for Kenworthy for coming out, adding that his announcement left her heart “fluttering” and feeling “like a million little cocoons just busted open and I am filled up with butterflies.”

“I looooove looooove looooove you!” Cyrus added.

Kenworthy was widely praised for being “one of the first action-sports stars to come out,” according to Olympics.com. He later went on to date actor Matthew Wilkas, with whom he shared a viral kiss before his qualifying run at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. The couple split in 2019.

A U.S. athlete for his first two Olympics, Kenworthy retired from competition in 2022 and did not go to the Beijing Winter Games that year, but decided to make a comeback with the help of his British ancestry for the 2026 Milan Games. He officially made Team Great Britain’s skiing squad last week, and is set to make his return to the Olympics next month.