Lifestyle Style Why Miley Cyrus Regrets Feeling Ashamed of Her Nearly-Nude 2008 'Vanity Fair' Photo Shoot The star is explaining why she took back her apology By Jillian Ruffo Jillian Ruffo Jillian Ruffo is a former associate beauty editor at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2018. People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 2, 2018 12:05PM EDT Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for My Friend's Place Ten years after Miley Cyrus apologized for her then-controversial Vanity Fair photo shoot, the 25-year-old star is opening up about why she’s no longer sorry for taking photos that she says were never supposed to be sexy. The “Younger Now” singer, who has taken on a care-free, unapologetic spirit in her adult life, came across the 2008 New York Post article that shamed her for the shoot. Staying true to her candid ways, she tweeted that she’s “NOT SORRY” for the photos, and later explained in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel that her motive behind that Tweet was boredom, along with today’s female-empowered climate. RELATED PHOTOS: Malibu Miley! See Miley Cyrus’ Style Transformation “I guess it was apparently 10 years ago and I think a lot of things have changed and I think the conversation has changed a lot” Cyrus said during her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “And I think something that I really thought about was, you know, sure people thought that I did something wrong in their eyes. But I think it was really wrong of someone to put on top of someone that this is my shame and I should be ashamed of myself. That’s not a nice thing to tell someone that they should be ashamed of themselves. Besides Donald Trump.” Cyrus shares that her sister Noah, who was 8 years old at the time of the photo shoot, was on set that day — further explaining that the photos were never meant to be sexy. But her apology at the time stemmed from her position as a role model to young girls and pressure from those around her — which, she says, is the exact reason why she no longer does what people tell her to do: “That idea sucked.” “I think at that time, I just wanted this to go away, and I think I also was trying to balance and understand what being a role model is,” Cyrus adds. “And to me I think being a role model has been my free spiritedness and sometimes my unapologetic attitude for decisions that I feel comfortable with.” But overall, Cyrus explained that her Tweet was born from boredom and simply the desire to speak up. “It popped up on my Instagram feed and I was like, ‘hey, telling them to go f— themselves sounds fun right now.’ I was bored,” she says.