The Tragic Details Of Liam Hemsworth

Following in the footsteps of his two older brothers, Liam Hemsworth moved from Australia to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting at just 19 years old. Thanks to movies such as "The Last Song," "Independence Day: Resurgence," and "The Hunger Games" franchise, he has experienced quite a successful career in Tinseltown. His older brother, Chris Hemsworth, seems to be practically universally adored, but the same can't necessarily be said for Liam Hemsworth. Over the years, some fans have actually started to turn on the youngest Hemsworth brother.

Certain fans have criticized Hemsworth for his divisive roles in shows such as "The Witcher," in which he replaced Henry Cavill. Others have made it far more personal and attacked the actor for how he handled his doomed relationship with Miley Cyrus. Because of his personal and professional struggles, Hemsworth has consistently been the subject of media scrutiny since he emerged in Hollywood. Let's take a look at the most tragic details of Hemsworth's life.

Even though Liam Hemsworth now appears to be quite close with his two brothers, some of his comments over the years suggest that this wasn't always the case. This isn't necessarily surprising, since he is the youngest brother in the family. He is seven years younger than Chris Hemsworth and 10 years younger than Luke Hemsworth. These significant age gaps mean that it was easy for his two older brothers to pick on him as a child. Reflecting on this childhood teasing during an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Liam Hemsworth said, "There was definitely some shenanigans growing up ... I would say loving but mostly traumatic."

During the interview, Liam Hemsworth revealed that his brothers would put him in the dryer a lot. "They wouldn't put the heat on, but they would put me in there," he said. Since he was too young to defend himself, it's easy to understand why he views moments like this as traumatic. Furthermore, he revealed that their parents would "turn a blind eye to that sort of thing." Liam Hemsworth didn't have anyone to help defend him while he was growing up. These instances may have created a power dynamic that has possibly continued into adulthood.

Despite the constant teasing from his older brothers, it seems like Liam Hemsworth mostly enjoyed growing up in Australia. When he was quite young, he fell in love with surfing, which is a major part of Australian culture. In a 2012 interview in Men's Health (via Daily Express), Hemsworth revealed that he surfed competitively between the ages of 13 and 18 and actually wanted to pursue the sport as a career. He loved riding the waves and even admitted that the fear of dying is alluring. He said, "That's part of the fun of it. The adrenaline you get from surfing big waves. I've seen a shark before. You get the worst wipeouts when you're not expecting it."

Hemsworth may look back fondly at his time as a competitive surfer, but in one particular instance, he almost died. He recalled, "When I was a kid, one time I got my leg rope wrapped around my whole body like a ball, under water. Couldn't get up. I was in waist-deep water, but I almost drowned." Because of the dangers of surfing, it's probably for the best that Hemsworth decided to follow in his brothers' footsteps and pursue a career in Hollywood. He is clearly very passionate about the sport, but almost drowning is undoubtedly a traumatic experience for any child to go through.

In 2010, Liam Hemsworth experienced a major career break when he was cast in "The Expendables." This was a major action movie at the time and would have given the young actor a chance to work with iconic stars like Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham. However, after Hemsworth experienced the adrenaline high of getting cast in "The Expendables," the script was actually rewritten without his character.

In a 2020 interview with Men's Health, Hemsworth revealed that he was convinced he would have to switch careers after his character was cut from the movie. He claimed, "My parents always said, 'Have a backup plan.' Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was like, 'I've probably got to do a trade, be a builder or landscaper.'" Getting cast in a major Hollywood movie and then being cut from it not long after is an emotional rollercoaster, so it's understandable why Hemsworth was considering a different career path.

Thankfully, he wasn't quick to quit and continued to pursue a career in Hollywood. "The Last Song," which was a breakthrough role for Hemsworth, ended up coming out the very same year as "The Expendables." Even though "The Last Song" was a romance and completely different from the action movie, it successfully established Hemsworth as a major Hollywood star and skyrocketed his career. In 2012, he actually appeared in the second "Expendables" film, which proves that everything works out the way it's supposed to.

Getting cut from "The Expendables" wasn't the only disappointment from Liam Hemsworth's early years in Hollywood. During the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was actually a top contender to play Thor. In an interview with W Magazine, Chris Hemsworth, who ended up playing the God of Thunder, revealed that he didn't hear back from the studio after his initial audition. After Chris Hemsworth was passed over for the role, Liam Hemsworth sent in an audition tape and caught the attention of the casting directors. Speaking about his brother's audition process, Chris Hemsworth told W Magazine, "He got a call back, then another call back and then was down to the last kind of four or five people for it."

However, Marvel Studios didn't offer the role to any of the top contenders. This led to Chris Hemsworth getting the chance to audition again, which clearly went much better. Even though the brothers weren't competing for the role at the same time, losing out on Thor to his own brother was probably very disappointing for the younger Hemsworth. This isn't to say that Liam Hemsworth wasn't happy for his older brother, but it's understandable that he also wanted the chance to play the role of a lifetime in the massive superhero franchise.

Thankfully, it seems like Liam Hemsworth has always had a positive outlook on losing the role of Thor to his brother. In an interview in the March 2012 issue of GQ Magazine (via ComicBookMovie.com), Liam Hemsworth said, "Look, Chris is six-and-a-half years older than me so there's this thing where if I'd got Thor, that would have been weird. The way I look at this is, better Chris than someone else."

While filming "The Last Song" together, Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus clearly had great chemistry, which led them to take their romance into the real world. The two confirmed they were dating not long after the movie wrapped production. Unfortunately, it became clear very quickly that their relationship was rocky. Hemsworth and Cyrus broke up for the first time in August 2010 but then quickly got back together a month later. In November of the same year, they broke up again. After two break-ups in less than a year, you might think that this was officially the end for the couple, but this was only the beginning of their whirlwind romance.

Hemsworth and Cyrus broke up and got back together several times during their nearly 10-year on-again, off-again relationship. Hemsworth even proposed to Cyrus in 2012, but then the couple called off their engagement the next year. They were apart for nearly three years before finding their way back to each other in 2016. Not long after reconnecting, Hemsworth proposed to Cyrus again. Some fans hoped that their second attempt at building a life together would have a happier ending, but their 2018 marriage didn't last long. Overall, the number of times Hemsworth and Cyrus broke up proves that from their 2009 meeting on the set of "The Last Song" to their divorce in 2019, they both had a very tumultuous time.

While Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus were still together, she moved into his Malibu home, which he purchased for $6.8 million in 2014. Tragically, the house burned down in the 2018 Woolsey fire, which caused hundreds of California residents to lose their homes. In the aftermath of the wildfire, Hemsworth took to Instagram to post a photo of the debris of his burned-down home. In the caption, he described losing his home and experiencing the catastrophic damage from the fire as "heartbreaking."

Hemsworth was taking a break from filming a movie and was actually at his Malibu home for the weekend when the evacuation order was issued. Before the wildfire reached his home, the actor rushed to evacuate all the animals that he and Cyrus owned together. Reflecting on this traumatic experience in an interview with Men's Health, Hemsworth said, "The whole time that I was packing up these animals, I had moments where I'm like, 'It's not going to get this far; this is a waste of time, and my house isn't going to burn down.' And of course it did burn down, and it was a s***ty thing to live through."

Thankfully, Hemsworth, Cyrus, and all their animals were safely evacuated, but they were forced to completely rebuild afterward. In 2020, Hemsworth ended up selling the Malibu home for just $3.6 million, much less than what he paid for it.

In February 2019, just a few months after his home burned down, Liam Hemsworth had to undergo surgery after getting a kidney stone. He actually had to cancel some press appearances ahead of the release of his movie "Isn't It Romantic" to go to the hospital and get surgery. In an interview with Men's Health, Hemsworth referred to this as "one of the most painful weeks of my life." This experience also caused him to rethink his diet since, according to the actor, "Once you get one kidney stone, you have a 50 percent chance of getting another one if you continue eating the way you were eating."

Hemsworth claimed that he suffered from a calcium-oxalate kidney stone, which formed because he had too much oxalate in his diet. He explained that foods like spinach, almonds, and potatoes, which he ate a lot of, all have high levels of oxalate. Therefore, even though he already seemingly had an extremely healthy diet, getting a kidney stone forced Hemsworth to completely rethink what food he was putting in his body.

Because of his kidney stone, Liam Hemsworth's 2019 didn't get off to a strong start, and it doesn't seem like it got much better after he recovered from the surgery, either. After their on-again, off-again relationship, which included two proposals, Hemsworth and Cyrus finally got married in late 2018. However, their marriage didn't last long at all. Hemsworth officially filed for divorce in August 2019, citing "irreconcilable differences."

According to a source quoted by People, Cyrus apparently "didn't expect" Hemsworth to file for divorce so soon and was "a bit disappointed," but the pair had reportedly been separated for several months before the official announcement. Hemsworth has never made any public comments to the press about his divorce from Cyrus. However, in an Instagram post from August 2019, just after their separation was announced, he wrote, "Just a quick note to say that Miley and I have recently separated and I wish her nothing but health and happiness going forward."

Luckily, since Hemsworth and Cyrus agreed to a prenuptial agreement and neither sought spousal support, the divorce was settled quite easily and was officially finalized in February 2020. After 10 long years, this marked the end of the pair's rocky romance.

Even though Liam Hemsworth's divorce from Miley Cyrus was settled quite peacefully, he faced scrutiny from various media outlets and people on social media years later, once a rumor began that the actor had cheated on the singer. This rumor started after Cyrus released her 2023 hit song "Flowers" and its accompanying music video on Hemsworth's birthday. In the breakup song, Cyrus sings about not needing a man, seemingly telling the world that she has moved on from the actor. The video for "Flowers" features the singer roaming around a house that, according to a viral X post from pop culture account Pop Tingz, is where Hemsworth cheated on her with 14 different women.

This post sent Cyrus' fans into a frenzy and led to Hemsworth being constantly bashed on social media. Furthermore, Cyrus seemingly accuses Hemsworth of cheating in "Muddy Feet," another popular song featured on her album "Endless Summer Vacation." In the song, Cyrus sings, "And you smell like perfume that I didn't purchase," which most fans assume is a reference to Hemsworth's potential cheating habits.

Hemsworth has never publicly responded to the cheating accusations. However, it's worth noting that, despite some suggestive lyrics in her songs, Cyrus has previously claimed that he didn't cheat on her. In an X post from 2019, she wrote, "I can admit to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating." This post hasn't stopped people from accusing Hemsworth of cheating, however, and the actor has had to face a lot of online scrutiny over his relationship with Cyrus over the years.

After his divorce from Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth spent a lot of time with family members, whom he seemingly has an amazing relationship with as an adult. However, tragically, his father has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. In the last few years, Chris Hemsworth has worked on several projects that he hopes will help fight the disease. In the 2022 docuseries "Limitless with Chris Hemsworth," the middle Hemsworth brother learned that he is also at risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's one day, which he described as his "biggest fear" in an interview with Vanity Fair. Additionally, the docuseries "A Road Trip to Remember" sees Chris Hemsworth and his father reflect on life together as they travel from Melbourne, Australia, to the Northern Territory, which is where the Hemsworth brothers grew up.

During an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Liam Hemsworth admitted that he finds it difficult to talk about his father's diagnosis. However, he expressed how much he appreciated watching his brother and his father have important conversations in the docuseries. "It's an incredibly, sort of, difficult thing, I think, for anyone who's had someone they love that's going through it," Liam said. "What was really interesting for me personally was I saw things, and I saw my dad talk about things that I don't think he necessarily would've spoken about with me. I don't think we would've had those conversations. And it was really nice I think to put Chris in a room with dad and hear him talk about his feelings and, you know, not wanting to be a burden."

In 2022, it was announced that Liam Hemsworth had been cast as Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix fantasy series "The Witcher" after actor Henry Cavill announced his departure from the show. Since many fans thought Cavill was perfect casting for the character, Hemsworth faced a lot of backlash when he accepted the role. In fact, the online reaction to this recasting forced Hemsworth to stay off social media for a long time. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, "There was quite a bit of noise and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction. ... I jumped off social media and the internet most of last year."

Three years after Hemsworth's casting was announced, fans were finally able to see his take on the iconic character when the fourth season of "The Witcher" was released in October 2025. As expected, fans were divided over Hemsworth's portrayal of Geralt of Rivia. Some believe he serves as a great replacement for Cavill, while others argue he makes it feel like a new show altogether.

With a critics' score of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes (and an abysmal audience score of 20%, both as of writing this piece), the fourth outing for "The Witcher" is the lowest-rated season of the series yet. Despite this, Hemsworth will have one more chance to win fans over with his portrayal of Geralt, since he will be returning for the fifth and final season of "The Witcher."