Miley Cyrus has revealed her battle with shame after over-sexualising her image to shake off her Disney child-star past.

The pop colossus, 30, said she had experienced years of guilt over racy references to drugs and sex in her music.

Milley Cyrus has revealed her battle with shame after over-sexualising her image.
Credit: Vogue/Steven Meisel

Miley appears on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Credit: Vogue/Steven Meisel

Miley split with actor ex Liam Hemsworth.
Credit: Getty Images – Getty

Former Hannah Montana star Miley shocked the world in 2013 by twerking her way through No1 hit We Can’t Stop and stripping for the video for Wrecking Ball.

At the time, Miley was 20 and was blasted for being a bad role model to her legions of fans.

Miley said: “I carried some guilt and shame around for years because of how much controversy and upset I really caused.

“Now I’m an adult, I realise how harshly I was judged.”

Miley found fame at 13 on the Disney Channel, playing “tweenage” icon Hannah from 2006 to 2011.

And she told British Vogue that her outrageous adult pop ­persona came from a need to escape her children’s role.

Miley revealed: “I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character.”

A decade later, her lifestyle could not be further away from her old party-loving ways — with the star, two years sober, saying: “I’m just evolved.”

Miley has been dodging the limelight since releasing her No1 hit album Endless Summer ­Vacation in March.

It told of the demise of her eight-month long marriage to ­Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, 33 — and reflected on finding love again with Lilly drummer Maxx Morando, 24.

But Miley said the reason she went off-grid was to prevent the flare-up of a secret health issue, involving “chronic pain and inflammation”, made worse by being under a spotlight.

She no longer has an appetite for embarking on a massive global tour, like chart-topping peer Dua Lipa, 27 — and may release new music soon which will reflect on her newfound state of calm.

Miley confessed: “Singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love.

“There’s no connection. There’s no safety. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.”

Miley told British Vogue that her outrageous image came from a need to escape her child persona.
Credit: Vogue/Steven Meisel

Miley revealed: ‘I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character’.
Credit: Vogue/Steven Meisel