It’s late afternoon and Hilary Duff is sipping from a giant mug of coffee. At the pace she’s been going lately, it makes sense that the actor and singer would need an afternoon pick-me-up. After all, being a mom to four kids and wife to music producer Matthew Koma keeps her very busy. Despite that, earlier this year, she managed to release her first album, luck … or something, in over a decade.
“People asked me for years when I’d make another album and I always skirted around that question,” says the 38-year-old. “The truth is I didn’t really know if I ever would because I had never gotten to make an album the way I wanted to.” Duff reached megastar status at 13 years old—when she starred as the title character in Lizzie McGuire on the Disney Channel. Overnight, Duff became a teen idol, and a string of successful movies and albums followed.
Duff is clearly grateful for her early success, but she also acknowledges that she wasn’t always in full control of it. Nevertheless, she managed to seamlessly transition from child to adult in a way that many struggle with in Hollywood. She released more albums and starred in more successful shows, including Younger and How I Met Your Father.
Over the past several years, Duff took a slight step back from the spotlight to focus on raising her kids—she welcomed her son, Luca, in 2012 and then had daughters Banks, Mae and Townes. But after having her fourth, she says she felt a call to return to music. This time, she didn’t have a label, a manager or even a budget. “I had my husband as producer and I made the music I wanted to make,” she says. “It represents who I am now, which is complicated and mature, but dressed in sequins.”
Hilary Duff was photographed by Kat Irlin in South Caicos. Swimsuit by OYE Swimwear. | Kat Irlin/Sports Illustrated
On the album, Duff draws from personal experiences and sings about everything from strained familial relationships to embracing one’s sexuality. It is a portrait of where Duff’s life is right now, and it has received the best reviews of her career. “This entire experience has felt like therapy,” she says when discussing not only the process of making the album, but also promoting it nonstop over the past several months. Next, Duff will be going on a six-month international tour—something she says she’s been actively training both her voice and body for. Yup, the late afternoon coffee makes a lot of sense, right?
Somehow, in between all of this, Duff fit in her cover shoot for SI Swimsuit. She says being asked to appear in the issue meant a lot. “I’m a mom of four and I’m not a spring chicken,” she says. “So, of course it was flattering.”
Duff adds that even though she’s been on a number of magazine covers throughout her career, this one felt different. “I don’t typically frolic around in a bathing suit, so it was a little scary,” she says. “But it was also incredibly empowering. It was a mostly female crew on set, and it really felt like a celebration of women.”
Duff admits that feeling comfortable in her body has been a journey. As a reminder, Duff came of age publicly in the early 2000s, a time when bloggers were circling every lump and bump on photos of young starlets and embracing women of all sizes and shapes was simply not a thing. “The amount of pressure I put on myself to look like other people was a lot,” she says. But pregnancy and the act of becoming a mom really helped adjust Duff’s mindset. “I can look at my body now and appreciate all the things it has done for me,” she says. “I no longer find that I am constantly comparing myself—and that is a better place to exist.” Though she’s describing her body, this ethos matches how Duff is approaching all areas of her life now.
She says she used to be a yes person but has been learning to say no. “Rather than just saying yes to everything, I think a lot more about what I am doing—I’m intentional about what I do,” she says. “Whatever I do, I try to think, Does this feel authentic? Does it resonate with my life? The answers to those things are really important when deciding if I am going to spend my time on something.” This feels like a major revelation for Duff, given the fact that she didn’t always know how to advocate for herself earlier in her career.
“I no longer have to try things on for size or do things just because someone has asked me to,” she says. “I do the things I want to do and I’m not afraid to be vocal about what does or doesn’t work for me and it feels great.”
