She's Hannah Montana: Every Time Miley Stewart Revealed Her Secret Identity in "Hannah Montana"
While desperate to keep her popstar alter ego a secret throughout most of the four seasons of Hannah Montana, Miley Steward did keep a handful of people close to her in the know about her double life. Let’s take a look at all the times Miley snatched her wig off throughout the hit Disney Channel series.
Disney Channel’s pop culture defining series Hannah Montana turns 20 this month. For those who are either too young to remember or grew up under a rock, the hit show follows Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), a normal girl with a pop star alter ego who strives to get the “Best of Both Worlds.” With the help of her father Robby Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus) and her two best friends Lily Truscott (Emily Osment) and Oliver Oaken (Mitchell Musso), Miley finds herself in a variety of comedically tricky situations to protect her normal life from the drawbacks of superstardom.
Throughout the series, Miley constantly battles with the complications of living a double life. I mean, you can hear it in the lyrics of some of her songs, including “but underneath it all, I’m just like you,” “yeah, when you’re famous it can be kinda fun. It’s really you but no one ever discovers,” “I hold the key to both realities. The girl that I want you to know if only I could should the other side, the other side, I want you to see. The other side, the other side, the other side of me.” and the entirety of “Ordinary Girl.” Somehow, Miley’s secret was kept safe from almost everyone in the world.
Throughout the series that small circle continues to grow as Miley learns how to trust the closest people around her, but how many times did she really take off the wig?
Season 1
S1, EP1 – Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Kicking off the entire series is Miley’s first reveal. Setting the tone for Hannah Montana, Miley struggles with keeping secrets from her best friend Lilly after always struggling to find time to spend time with her. Looking for a sure fire way to get her attention, Lilly buys tickets to go see Hannah Montana in concert. However, Miley can’t go for obvious reasons. In an attempt to get herself an incredible souvenir, Lilly scales her way into Hannah’s dressing room, leaving Miley to alter her voice and cover her face in pie to protect her identity. But when Lilly calls Miley and Hannah’s phone rings and Lilly notices Hannah wearing the friendship bracelet she got Miley, her cover is blown. After a sweet heart to heart, Miley is relieved she has a friend she can share her full self with. That is until Lilly tries to leverage her identity to brag to popular girls Amber and Ashley. And after another heart to heart, Lilly and Miley makeup and kick off four seasons of best friendship.
S2, EP2 – Miley Get Your Gum
Miley’s other best friend Oliver has an insatiable crush on Hannah Montana. Stalking her down after several of her concerts and climbing on top of her limo, Miley finally thinks she solves her problem by telling Oliver that Hannah has a boyfriend. Unfortunately, he wants to wait for her. Utilizing his disgust of chewing gum, Miley and Lilly plan a meet up for Oliver to stumble into Hannah while she’s smacking on a nasty amount of the candy. Oliver decides he doesn’t care, promising to work through his disgust for their “love.” Miley realizes she has to tell him, pulling off her wig just a handful of steps away from the beach. Solidifying the trio, the rest of Hannah’s reveals are far higher stakes.
S1, EP14 – New Kid in School
When superstar teen actor Jake Ryan arrives at Miley’s school, she gets a first hand look at the perks of everyone knowing that you are famous. After getting in trouble for eating in class while Jake Ryan eats a full meal provided by the lunch lady, she has an outburst in class that gets her sent to the office. On her way out, a reporter captures Miley in her fit of rage, expressing her frustrations with her celebrity classmate. Her impulses give way revealing to the reporter that she is Hannah Montana, giving her her home address so she can prove it. Regretting it immediately, Miley, Robby Ray, and Jackson all team up to make themselves look crazy and get the reporter off her tail. While she never truly rips her wig off, it is a very close call for Miley’s double life.
Season 2
S2, EP 9 – Achy Jakey Heart: Part 1
Jake returns after shooting a movie for six months, eager to win Miley’s affection after kissing her and leaving. Miley is quick to ignore him, including big shows of affection, lavish gifts, and more. Miley finally relents and gives Jake another chance, until he finds out he has to go on a publicity date to the premiere of his movie with his co-star. Miley is upset, deciding to hate watch the premiere from home. But when Jake admits that he’s “in love with a girl named Miley Stewart” on live TV, she decides to give him another chance. On a romantic beachside date, Jake names a star after Miley and reveals to her his biggest secret: his real name is Leslie. Miley feels so guilty about not telling her the truth that she decided to tell him. Ending the episode on a cliff hanger, Miley invites Jake to the beach where she puts the wig on and reveals that she’s Hannah Montana.
S2, EP 12 – When You Wish You Were the Star
While this is technically a fantasy episode, Miley makes a wish upon a star that she could be Hannah all the time. When she wakes up the next morning living her new life as just her alter ego, Miley gets to see first hand how hard her life would become and how much her relationship with the people around her would change if she could never be just Miley again.
Season 3
S3, EP2 – Read, Set, Don’t Drive
Miley is desperate to get her drivers license, but after failing as Miley, she decides to give it another shot as Hannah Montana. She passes the driving test, and is fully intent on taking full advantage of that freedom. But when she gets pulled over without her wig on, Miley is forced to reveal her secret and is met with doubt from Officer DiAria. He takes her into the station, bringing in his biggest Hannah Montana investigator: his daughter. After tons of back and forth, she doesn’t believe her, leaving her stuck in jail. In a last ditch effort, Miley sings “Best of Both Worlds,” seeing the young fan return to the investigation room with a huge excited smile on her face. They both promise to keep her secret, and Miley thinks she has gotten away with it until Robby Ray walks through the door to pick her up. As punishment, he drives Miley to the party she was trying to drive to alone to embarrass her.
Hannah Montana: The Movie
After her popstar privileges lead her to fighting over a pair of shoes with Tyra Banks and ruining Lilly’s birthday party, Robby Ray forces Miley to head back to where she came from for a hard lesson in staying grounded. Stuck in Crowley Corners, TN, Miley is initially upset about being away from the fast paced and luxurious life of Hannah Montana. Throughout the film, she finds that part of her heart still lies in Crowley Corners. While using her alter ego to stop a massive development project in the area, and being stalked by a British photographer, Miley’s balance of her real self and Hannah proves to strain her growing relationship with Travis and her Dad’s budding romance with Lorelai. During a massive benefit concert, Miley has enough, ripping her wig off and revealing her identity to all the people she grew up with. After promising to keep her secret, she puts the wig back on and performs “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home.”
Season 4
S4, EP2 – Hannah Montana to the Principal’s Office
When Robbie Ray forgets to send in Miley’s registration for school, Miley is forced to exercise her Hannah privileges to enroll in first semester classes. Quickly learning that going to school as Hannah Montana is more trouble than it’s worth, Miley is forced to realize she won’t get to have the experiences of an ordinary high school senior. That is until the end of the episode when President Barack Obama shows up, announcing that he intervened with the school, getting Miley back in class. This is the first time we learn that the then President of the United States was in on Miley’s double life.
S4, EP4 – De-Do-Do-Do, Da-Don’t-Don’t-Don’t Tell My Secret!
After Jackson’s girlfriend Siena spots her at the Stewart residence, she begins getting suspicious of his relationship with the popstar. Accusing Jackson of cheating on her, Miley is put in a tough position with Jackson asking her to share the truth with Siena and save their relationship. Miley’s apprehension causes the pair to break up, leaving Miley feeling guilty for ruining her brother’s connection. She eventually decides to reveal the truth to Siena to save Jackson’s relationship.
S4, EP9 and 10 – I’ll Always Remember You Part 1 and 2
Miley’s relationship with Jesse gets complicated when she goes to tell him she’s Hannah Montana, but he already knows. Revealing he was just paying attention, the weight is finally off of Miley’s shoulders until Jesse kisses Hannah on the cheek while on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. But when the world starts seeing him with Miley, the whole world gangs up on him thinking he’s cheating on Hannah. Jesse breaks up with Miley, saying that, as long as there are two of her, they can’t be together.
Miley’s life gets even more complicated when she finds out she wasn’t accepted to her and Lilly’s dream school Stanford University. Miley drives 200 miles to find out that her denial was due to her lack of extracurricular activities that Lilly had excelled at. She realizes that her accomplishments are clouded by her secret identity.
Miley comes up with the idea to say she was Hannah Montana’s assistant, driving up a second time. The admissions officer says that would change their decision, but she needs proof of employment.
She returns a third time as Hannah Montana, with the admissions officer sharing that Hannah would have been an easy acceptance if she had Miley’s grades. She considers taking off the wig, but returns home disappointed.
Returning home, Lilly decides to rescind her acceptance for a year to wait for Miley. However, Miley’s conscience, in the form of Hannah, reminds her of how much she has asked her friends and family to sacrifice for her.
She returns to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, revealing to the world that she, Miley Steward, was Hannah Montana all along.
After going through all these episodes, I can feel myself craving a Hannah Montana rewatch. While we still have until March 20th for Disney+’s Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special, there are plenty of ways to relive the popstar fun of Hannah Montana on Disney+. While Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana The Movie, and Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert have been on the streamer, fans would have to search for these to enjoy. Well, now you can relive the good ole days of live TV by joining in on the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary stream! Featuring a random lineup of your favorite moments in Hannah Montana 24 hours a day, fans can reminisce about the mega popular show endlessly! Plus check out other exciting ways to relive the “Best of Both Worlds.”
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