Flavor Flav Recalls Miley Cyrus Smacking His Face After He Mistook Her for Gwen Stefani: ‘We Laughed It Off’
Cyrus previously told the rapper backstage at the 2024 Grammy Awards, “You used to call me Gwen every time I saw you!”
Years ago, Flavor Flav mistook Miley Cyrus for Gwen Stefani — and she responded with playful vengeance.
After a video went viral of Cyrus appreciating Flav for now knowing her name while backstage at the 2024 Grammy Awards, the Public Enemy rapper opened up about mistaking her for Stefani in a new interview on the podcast Just B with Bethenny Frankel.
“There was a time a few years back when they both had the same exact haircut. That’s the thing that got me,” said Flav, 64, seemingly referring to Cyrus’ short, blonde Bangerz-era ‘do. “When I ran across Miley first time ever in my life I was like, ‘Oh my God, Gwen Stefani, Gwen Stefani!’ You know what? Miley didn’t say anything. She just went along with it.”
Following their initial meeting, one of the Flavor of Love star’s friends let him know he’d confused the two musicians for one another — and he felt bad. “I turned around, and I ran back to her,” said Flav, before recalling what he told her. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Yo, Miley Cyrus, I know who you are now. Your dad Billy Ray Cyrus.'”
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so stupid,'” added the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, who then explained how Cyrus reacted: “Smacked me in the face. She smacked me in the face. Miley Cyrus slapped Flavor Flav in the face, and I said, ‘I won’t let it happen again. We laughed it off.”
While backstage at the 2024 Grammys earlier this month, according to a video shared to social media, Cyrus jokingly called Flav out for mixing her up with the No Doubt frontwoman in the past.
In the clip, seemingly taken after Cyrus performed “Flowers” on the annual awards show, the rap icon called the Hannah Montana alum’s name, and she walked over to give him a hug. “You know it’s me! I made it,” she exclaimed, while standing beside her mom, Tish.
“You don’t think I’m Gwen Stefani anymore,” Cyrus told Flav. “You used to call me Gwen every time I saw you.”
“I know,” he admitted, to which Cyrus ᴀssured him in response: “I love it.”
The pair then exchanged “I love you”s, before she gestured to Flav’s signature clock necklace and said, “You know what time it is!”
Flav poked fun at the interaction on X (formerly Twitter), writing in a post, “My girl Gwen Stefani,,, I mean MILEY CYRUS @MileyCyrus Give My Girl her FLOWERS.”
Elsewhere on the Just B podcast, Flav said Cyrus “lit up like a Christmas tree” during their Grammys meeting. “Miley love herself some Flav,” he quipped.
Prior to the awards show this year, the two stars met on multiple occasions, including the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival as well as VH1’s Big in ’06 broadcast.
