Duff stepped away from music for most of her 20s to focus on acting and starting a family. (An attempted comeback album in 2015, \u201cBreathe In. Breathe Out.,\u201d didn\u2019t really go anywhere.) Now, at 38, she\u2019s returned with a bracingly honest record full of the texture and detail of her life as a wife, sister and mother of four.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771753641_576_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In frank yet wordy songs that layer guitars and synths over shimmering grooves, Duff sings about trying to overcome old habits and about her fear that her best times are behind her. \u201cWe Don\u2019t Talk\u201d appears to address her estrangement from her older sister, Haylie, while \u201cWeather for Tennis\u201d describes her tendency to keep the peace as a child of divorce. In \u201cHoliday Party,\u201d she recounts a recurring dream in which Koma cheats on her with her friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wake up in a rage and he\u2019s like, \u2018I didn\u2019t do anything!\u2019\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018But you want to.\u2019 A lot of this stuff came out of the hormonal boom of: I\u2019ve just had a baby and I\u2019m nursing and I\u2019m trying to get my two feet back on the ground again.\u201d (Duff and Koma have three daughters aged 7, 4 and 1, while Duff shares a 13-year-old son with her ex-husband, former hockey player Mike Comrie.)<\/p>\n
Asked how he hopes the album fares commercially, Koma says, \u201cI don\u2019t [care]. Public perception or sales, that\u2019s all cool, but it\u2019s a separate experience from why we did it.\u201d The producer, who\u2019s known for his work with Zedd and Shania Twain, adds, \u201cThe whole purpose was to make something that Hilary could feel good about stepping into.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet early-2000s nostalgia led to a recent run of sold-out theater gigs, and this summer it\u2019ll carry her into arenas around the world, including Inglewood\u2019s Kia Forum on July 8 and 9. (Less happily for Duff, it also made a viral sensation of an essay in the Cut<\/a> by her fellow millennial Ashley Tisdale in which Tisdale wrote about leaving a \u201ctoxic mom group\u201d that allegedly included Duff and Mandy Moore.)<\/p>\n Curled on a sofa in the studio\u2019s control room, Duff says, \u201cI\u2019m finally at this place where I\u2019m zero percent ashamed of my past and any of the things that used to embarrass me\u201d \u2014 one reason she made the bold choice to open her set at the Wiltern last month with two of her biggest hits, \u201cWake Up\u201d and \u201cSo Yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n After those songs came \u201cRoommates,\u201d perhaps the most vulnerable track on Duff\u2019s new album. It\u2019s about navigating a dry patch in a marriage, and the language is as vivid as it is unsparing: \u201cI only want the beginning \/ I don\u2019t want the end,\u201d she sings, adding that she longs to be in the \u201cback of a dive bar, giving you h\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n A surprising word choice. Like all teen stars, you had to figure out how to grow up and talk about sex as a public figure. Now there\u2019s the idea that it\u2019s better left to the young. You\u2019re handling senior citizenship well. I always stop at those TikToks where it shows what 35 looked like in 1982. Hilary Duff, left, and Matthew Koma at Apple Music Studios in Los Angeles in December. <\/p>\n (Amy Sussman \/ Getty Images for Apple Music)<\/p>\n You borrow the chorus of Blink-182\u2019s \u201cDammit\u201d for your song \u201cGrowing Up.\u201d Why? What\u2019s the problem with \u201cfan\u201d? A woman of the people? Why do you have four children? Did you expect to have four? As two artists, how do you sort out the work of child-rearing? You don\u2019t need me to tell you that our culture is always happy to make moms feel guilty. Was it a journey to accept that it\u2019s OK to do something for yourself? Hilary Duff in the studio where she recorded her new album.<\/p>\n (Jay L Clendenin \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got a line in \u201cRoommates\u201d where you say, \u201cLife is life-ing and pressure is pressuring me.\u201d At the shows you just played, did you think of your audience as being at the same place in life as you? Twenty-five years ago, you were playing to 10-year-olds. Would a 10-year-old today be interested in your new songs? The last decade has been a golden age for young female songwriters: Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo. \u201cLuck\u2026 or Something\u201d feels aligned with that deepening craft. But maybe your early stuff felt sophisticated to you. She changed the game? How\u2019d you end up on Atlantic Records? I wondered whether this was a product of personal friendships \u2014 the Elliot Grainge<\/a> and Sofia Richie and Good Charlotte<\/a> of it all. You weren\u2019t looking for notes from the label. Did you feel like you\u2019d been chewed up by the record industry in any way? The story about the toxic mom group blew up just as you were launching this album. Did that experience give you pause about reentering the pop world? Is it hard or easy for you to tune out \u2014 But can you ignore the chatter about you on social media?
How would you have said it? Sometimes you need to make the lyrics fit \u2014 you need it to rhyme with something. [Laughs] It\u2019s meant to be polarizing because it\u2019s such a desperate plea. I can say I haven\u2019t actually given h\u2014 in the back of a dive bar. But it\u2019s just trying to capture the feeling of a time when you felt alive.<\/p>\n
I finally feel like I know a lot about sex. My whole 20s, sex was not always enjoyable \u2014 it was so much to figure out. Now I finally understand it. Maybe that\u2019s a female thing, but I\u2019m not ready to be put out to pasture. People come up to me all the time and they\u2019re like, \u201cWow, you aged really well.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019m only 38! Just because you\u2019ve known me since I was 9\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
When do I start getting the discounts? I feel like 38 is not old, although when I thought about my parents at 40, they looked so different than we look now.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think anyone drank water back then. They were, like, dusty-crusty.<\/p>\n![\"Hilary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771753642_486_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Blink is one of my favorite bands. I remember getting my driver\u2019s license, and that was what was playing on my iPod. \u201cGrowing Up\u201d is such a deeply personal song to me, talking about sitting in the backyard with one of my best friends and just needing to drink too much wine and unload about life. But it also feels like a love letter to my fans. I don\u2019t like saying that word, but I genuinely feel like I\u2019ve had fans for 25 years, and getting to see them now in adulthood \u2014 I didn\u2019t know I was going to have this opportunity.<\/p>\n
It puts me on a pedestal that makes me feel uncomfortable. If you were to talk to Matt or someone close to me, they\u2019d probably say, \u201cHilary doesn\u2019t understand what she\u2019s meant to some people.\u201d And I think that\u2019s true. When I think of myself, I\u2019m not like a grand pop star \u2014 I feel more like a woman of the people.<\/p>\n
Am I allowed to say that? [Laughs] Is that offensive in any way? My feet hit the ground in the morning, and I\u2019ve got a million things to do. Sometimes my baby\u2019s still sleeping. And I have a teenager to get ready for school that we\u2019re always all waiting on.<\/p>\n
I know \u2014 we\u2019re sick.<\/p>\n
I thought I would have at least three. I always wanted a big family because I come from a super small family and I always wanted more siblings. I had Luca obviously pre-Matt, and then we had Banks before we got married. Then the pandemic hit \u2014 we had a pandemic baby like everybody else. The fourth was just a crazy-a\u2014 decision. Matt was like, \u201cEverybody\u2019s gonna think we\u2019re really Christ-y if we go for No. 4.\u201d We also have three dogs, two cats and eight chickens.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve actually said this out loud \u2014 to Matt I have for sure \u2014 but I think that part of my wanting to make a record was coming out of having my fourth child. I love motherhood, obviously \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t have four kids if I didn\u2019t. But I think I felt really jealous that he got to go to work every day and just be alone with his thoughts. I was like, I need to stretch. That\u2019s what it felt like after the fourth baby: I\u2019m either gonna lose myself completely and just become a stay-at-home mom and wait for the phone to ring, or I\u2019m gonna go make something that moves me.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the healthy part of the brain says. But the other part that\u2019s wired to be with the children you birthed \u2014 sometimes that part overshadows it. And it\u2019s very hard to fight that. I could probably cry right now thinking about all the things I\u2019m gonna miss this year.<\/p>\n![\"Hilary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771753643_500_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
For sure. When they were scream-singing it back to me, I was like, \u201cOh, you know.\u201d That doesn\u2019t mean you have to be a parent. \u201cLife is life-ing\u201d is the bills and the monotony and the traffic and the family \u2014 it\u2019s all the things. I knew that if it\u2019s bumping around inside my head, and I\u2019ve been living a pretty normal life for 10 years \u2014 normal as I can get \u2014 then people would see themselves in it.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think so. But I mean, I used to sing Natalie Imbruglia\u2019s \u201cTorn\u201d all the time, and I had no idea what it was about.<\/p>\n
You forgot Chappell Roan<\/a>.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think the intent back then was sophisticated songwriting. There was no Taylor Swift yet \u2014 it\u2019s like before Christ and after Christ.<\/p>\n
On all the levels.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re more personally friends with them now. I finished making the record and for the first time ever was like, \u201cIt\u2019s done \u2014 do you like it?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying I didn\u2019t have meetings with A&R. But pretty much the record was created, and that was that. I didn\u2019t go shopping anywhere else, which was fantastic because I hate a dog-and-pony show.<\/p>\n
After \u201cBreathe In. Breathe Out.,\u201d it was very easy to be like, \u201cRCA forced me to lead with this song when I knew it should\u2019ve been this song.\u201d But that was me not having [courage], you know what I mean? It was a joint effort of [messing] it up. But I learned a lot from that. I don\u2019t think I would\u2019ve made this record if I hadn\u2019t fumbled the ball a little.<\/p>\n
I mean, this is not new for me. I\u2019ve had this since I was maybe 15 and starting to get followed around by paparazzi. Everything starts getting documented and everyone knows my life and all the players in it. So the stories that get news pickup \u2014 it\u2019s not what happens to a normal person who maybe became an actor as an adult. And now it\u2019s escalated by the talking heads on TikTok that need clickbait. It\u2019s hard because you\u2019re like, \u201cWait, whoa, that person kind of got it right,\u201d and \u201cWhoa that person doesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d I saw something that was like, \u201cNone of the moms at school actually like her and neither do the teachers,\u201d and I was like, \u201cFirst of all\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
By the way, the women at school are lovely and I\u2019m obsessed with all of them.<\/p>\n
It just depends on the day. Knowing that I get to open up the backdoors and play soccer as a family and take a hot tub and go get our chicken eggs \u2014 that\u2019s the purpose of life. On the days when crazy s\u2014 happens, I go home and quiet the noise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sparkly pink electric guitar hangs on a wall of the recording studio where Hilary Duff made her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3409,88611,64856,88609,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,76717,64854,88610,592,88612,10390,10234,4610,315,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-188666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-child","9":"tag-healthy-part","10":"tag-hilary-duff","11":"tag-honest-record","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-matt","20":"tag-matthew-koma","21":"tag-new-album","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-recording-studio","24":"tag-song","25":"tag-taylor-swift","26":"tag-thing","27":"tag-time","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}