In the weeks following their Aug. 10 separation announcement, Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth have taken two very different approaches to the spotlight: While Liam's been laying low in his native Australia with his family, Miley's maintained a much higher public profile in the States, making it clear she's moving on.
The pop star was a last-minute addition to the performance roster at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 26 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where she sang her brand-new breakup song "Slide Away," which features lyrics seemingly about the end of her seven-month marriage and decade-long romance with Liam.
After the show, Miley was photographed holding hands with "The Hills: New Beginnings" star Kaitlynn Carter — Brody Jenner's recent ex — the woman she's been seen kissing and spending time with in the wake of her breakup with Liam.
Miley, 26, and Kaitlynn, 30, were snapped walking hand-in-hand alongside the pop star's mother, Tish Cyrus, outside a New York City nightclub following the VMAs.
The women shared some PDA earlier in the night too: A backstage source at the VMAs told Page Six that they saw Miley "giving a sweet kiss" to Kaitlynn before the pop star hit the stage to perform "Slide Away." Afterward, E! News reports, the women were seen walking backstage when Kaitlynn sweetly put her hand on Miley's head.
Miley also debuted a new tattoo at the VMAs that many believe is inspired by her split from Liam, who filed for divorce on Aug. 21.
"My head was feeling scared but my heart was feeling free," reads the ink on her left bicep. It's a lyric from the 1990 Pixies song "The Thing." People magazine reports that it was done by celebrity-favorite tattoo artist Daniel Winter, aka Winter Stone.
Miley, who's publicly identified as pansexual, and Kaitlyn have been together a lot since their splits. They were photographed making out and cuddling while on vacation in Italy the same weekend Miley's rep announced her separation from Liam.
A week later, they were back in California where, Page Six reported, they "couldn't keep their hands off each other" during an Aug. 16 visit to Soho House in West Hollywood. According to the New York Post gossip column's witness, "They were kissing and making out everywhere. In the bathroom, at the bar, in the middle of the floor. They were basically having sex. There's no question they're together."
On Aug. 22, Miley took to social media with a lengthy message for fans in which she denied that infidelity was to blame for the end of her marriage.
"I can admit to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating. Liam and I have been together for a decade. I've said it before & it remains true, I love Liam and always will," she wrote in part. "BUT at this point I had to make a healthy decision for myself to leave a previous life behind. I am the healthiest and happiest I have been in a long time. You can say I am a twerking, pot smoking , foul mouthed hillbilly but I am not a liar."