A faded photograph shows a smiling young girl stepping out of a tiny red and white plane as her proud grandparents look on.
It could be a snapshot of any happy American family were it not for one strange detail: the girl’s coat flares out from her stomach, barely concealing an apparent baby bump.
That, says Jayme Lee, is because she was pregnant at the time – carrying a child who she claims grew up to be global pop sensation Miley Cyrus.
Now 45 years old and speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Lee insists that her story is true, even as others pass her claims off as the over-vivid imagination of a delusional mind.
So far, Lee’s quixotic quest to prove she is the Wrecking Ball singer’s biological mother has seen her file multiple lawsuits at both federal and state level, two of which have already been tossed – one a state challenge filed in Tennessee and the second a federal case filed in California.
On Wednesday, a judge in Davidson County, Tennessee, ordered her to pay Billy Ray Cyrus around $7,500 in legal fees.
Jayme Lee claims she was sex trafficked as a child and became pregnant at 12 with a daughter who she claims grew up to be Miley Cyrus. She says this picture shows her as a pregnant child with her grandparents
Jayme Lee, 45, has filed multiple legal actions seeking to prove she is the biological mother of former Disney star Miley Cyrus
Miley, 33, is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, who divorced in 2023
But Lee is undeterred. Next, she said, she plans to lodge a fresh case in Malibu, where the 33-year-old former Disney star lives – this time a family court suit aimed at securing a DNA test that would finally decide the matter one way or another.
‘I never wanted to involve Miley,’ Lee told the Daily Mail. ‘But she’s evidence – the evidence I have to show that I was sex trafficked and had a baby because of it.’
Lee, a divorced mom of two sons and one daughter who works as a speech therapist, now lives in Peoria, Arizona.
But her story starts in Ruidoso, a town of 7,600 people in New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca Mountains where she was born Jayme Lee Paxton, the last name now permanently dropped.
Lee said that what should have been an idyllic childhood turned to horror when she began being sex trafficked from an early age by local cartel-affiliated gangs.
By the age of 12, she said, she was pregnant. She repeatedly tried to run away – including to her grandparents who live in the small town of Jamul, California, in the mountains east of San Diego.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lee says she repeatedly tried to run away from home as a child
‘I knew that I wanted to protect this baby at all costs,’ Lee told the Daily Mail.
‘I specifically picked the name Miley as soon as I realized I was pregnant because of all the miles I had traveled [while being sex trafficked].
‘I wanted a name that was one of a kind that could be linked back to me, specifically.’
However, in the Cyrus family’s version of events, Miley was named Destiny Hope Cyrus at birth – a detail that Lee’s account does not explain. The singer has revealed the origins of her current name in early interviews, explaining she was nicknamed ‘Smiley’ – later shortened to ‘Miley’ – by her parents because of her happy disposition.
It’s at this point that Lee’s story takes a Tinseltown twist: she said she began approaching celebrities in the hopes they would adopt her child.
Among them, Lee claimed, were Julia Roberts, who owns a ranch in New Mexico, Ozzy and Sharon Osborne – the late singer had extensive business ties in the state – and Hillary Clinton, who was campaigning in the state at the time.
According to Lee, all were kind to her when she sought them out with her offer of a baby to adopt – although she is vague in explaining why none had called the cops or Child Protective Services when confronted with a pregnant 12-year-old.
‘I had been telling people I was 14. I had braces, and that was helping to make me seem older than I was,’ Lee told the Daily Mail.
‘And I didn’t really give them much of a chance to, you know? I’m sure I also said, “please don’t call the police” ahead of time because I was a runaway, and I didn’t want to get sent back to my family.’
After allegedly being turned down by all four, it was then she had the idea to ask Dolly Parton – of whom she was a fan – to adopt her baby instead.
Jayme Lee claims she began approaching celebrities to adopt her baby, and Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus agreed
Billy Ray has denied Lee’s story, calling it ‘false and absurd’
Lee said her grandfather George – who also, in her telling, did not call the cops nor an adoption agency – was happy to drive her half-way across the country to Tennessee where they approached Parton after a show at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
Lee claimed Parton was kind and welcoming towards her and did not insist on calling the cops, despite being approached by a pregnant child.
But, Lee alleged, while Dolly didn’t want to adopt a baby, she knew someone who did: Billy Ray Cyrus, newly famous due to his smash 1992 hit Achy Breaky Heart.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Sharon Osbourne, Hillary Clinton, Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton for comment.
Billy Ray has denied Lee’s story about Miley’s parentage and, after the Tennessee case was dismissed last week, called it ‘false and absurd.’ He also noted that in Tennessee, an adoption is ‘not legally permissible’ without obtaining a court order first.
Miley has long been reported to have been born and raised in Tennessee.
Lee, however, said that the alleged ‘private adoption’ took place in California instead. She claimed she gave birth to Miley alone in Ocean Beach before handing the baby over to Billy Ray and his then-wife Tish at a rental property in the swank San Diego suburb of Encinitas.
She claimed it was then that Billy Ray reneged on the deal they had agreed – for an open adoption – and says she has not seen him or Miley since.
In a bizarre twist, she said she then approached the Kardashian family for help – telling the Daily Mail she believed they would know how to find her a lawyer. Lee said she met the family because they owned a property next door to her grandparents in Jamul, although there is no evidence that any of the Kardashian clan ever owned a home there.
Nonetheless, every member of the family was mentioned in the now-tossed California lawsuit with Kim – who was then also 12 – accused of precipitating a car accident that resulted in Lee being returned to her parents in New Mexico.
Miley famously shot to child stardom alongside her father, who played her dad on screen when she starred in her breakout role of Hannah Montana on Disney Channel
Lee claims she gave birth in California before handing her daughter over to Tish Cyrus and her then-husband Billy Ray at a rental property in the swank San Diego suburb of Encinitas
Lee said her trauma had caused her to forget that she had been trafficked, or even that she had had a child, but the move back to Ruidoso triggered flashbacks.
As a result, in 2016 she checked herself into an Arizona State University-affiliated mental health facility in Tucson where she was diagnosed with PTSD.
‘I spent the night, and I said, I need to talk to a doctor.
‘I explained my symptoms. I remember that I was raped and I had a baby, and I’m only remembering it now.
‘And he said, “Yeah, that is exactly what happens when you have PTSD. This is very normal and the brain can block something out, and that’s what you’re going through.”‘
It was then that she first attempted to contact Miley through her lawyer, but said she heard nothing back.
She also began trying to report her story to the police in the hopes of getting justice for the sex abuse she said she endured, only to be rebuffed by multiple police departments – and was even placed in a 72-hour psychiatric hold.
‘I tried reaching out to the police because the heart of the matter is that a crime took place,’ Lee told the Daily Mail.
Lee claims she approached Dolly Parton – who is Miley Cyrus’s godmother – to adopt her daughter
Despite her efforts in court, Lee has not been able to make contact with the singer to conduct a DNA test, she says
‘I was trying to get a police officer somewhere to look into that, since there’s not a statute of limitations in a lot of the states where these crimes occurred.
‘It’s just I never could get anybody to take it seriously. And if anything, I ended up suffering really terrible consequences from trying to get them to look into it.’
Last month, Lee filed suit against five police departments – among them Ruidoso, San Diego and Nashville – in federal court in Arizona, accusing them of discrimination.
She is now hoping that Miley herself will lend her a sympathetic ear and consent to do the DNA test, and, if it proves they are biologically related, build a relationship with her of some sort.
‘I would ask Miley to do a DNA test to get the truth to show that I am her birth mom. I understand that I’m biologically her mom. Does it mean that now I’m her mom? I’m not.
‘I’m not claiming any of those moments, and I’m not trying to take away anything of what her and Tish have, because I would only want for her something beautiful and good and pure.’
Along with potential contact with Miley, Lee said she hopes her story – which she acknowledges sounds outlandish – will help other PTSD sufferers to come to terms with their own.
‘It does seem weird, and I think it’s important for all of us to use this as a learning experience to say, you can block out being raped and having a baby and remember it later,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘It happens, it can happen, it does happen. If it’s happening to you, you’re not alone.’
She added: ‘I know a lot of people out there are going that’s a crazy story – and it is a crazy story.
‘The truth is crazy sometimes. I didn’t choose it.’
