Flavor Flav Reveals Why Miley Cyrus Smacked Him in the Face

Forget edge of midnight — we’re on the edge of our seats over this story. 

During a new appearance on Bethenny Frankel’s Just B podcast, Flavor Flav revealed he once mistook Miley Cyrus for Gwen Stefani — and the mixup ended in a playful smack. As the rapper recalled, this happened years ago when Cyrus and Stefani had similar haircuts. According to our sleuthing, we suspect Flav was referring to around 2012, when he was photographed with Cyrus backstage during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival. At the time, the Disney alum was rocking a platinum blond pixie cut styled in a pushed-back pompadour, similar on first glance to Stefani’s signature platinum blond hair in voluminous updos. 

According to Flav’s story, he immediately reacted to meeting Cyrus for the first time, calling out “Gwen Stefani! Gwen Stefani!” He noted that Cyrus did not correct him and just went along with it. However, after hugging and walking away, one of Flav’s friends revealed to him that she was not actually Stefani. He ran back to Cyrus and apologized, calling himself stupid.

“Miley Cyrus smacked Flavor Flav in the face and I said, ‘I won’t let it happen again,'” he recalled. “We laughed it off.”

It seems there are no hard feelings between them, having recently run into each other at the 2024 GRAMMYs where they posed for photos together. 

“That girl lit up like a Christmas tree,” he said of Cyrus seeing him at the awards show. “Miley love herself some Flav.”

In a video Flav posted on Instagram of them reuniting at the musical event, Cyrus quipped, “You know it’s me. I made it! You don’t think I’m Gwen Stefani anymore.”

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