Tragic Details About Hilary Duff's Life

Hilary Duff positioned herself as an essential piece of the soundtrack to millennial lives again with the February 2026 release of "Luck... or Something." The "Lizzie McGuire" star confirmed in multiple interviews that the title of the album refers to the fact that she has a reputation for having survived child stardom relatively unscathed. Although she made some smart career decisions, she also admitted that there was some luck involved in her journey. 

Although she's been in the spotlight since she was a teenager, there are some details people might not know about her life. Drama and juicy details about the men she dated are more likely to make headlines. And reading those headlines, it's clear that, although the "With Love" singer has gone through a stunning transformation in front of the world, off-camera, her personal life has had some tragic details. It's impressive that Duff lived through it all and still has a smile on her face.

Hilary Duff had been famous for many years by the time her parents, Robert "Bob" Duff and Susan Duff, finalized their divorce in 2008 after about 20 years of marriage. Since Hilary was in her early 20s at the time, the messy details of the split made headlines — something that would have traumatized anyone, no matter how old they were. 

Bob and Susan split in 2007, and Bob told Inside Edition in 2008 that they grew apart in part because of Susan's focus on Hilary and her sister Haylie Duff's careers. He also admitted he had affairs, saying: "I was unfaithful to our marriage. I feel very badly about that and the effect that it had on the girls." Bob appeared on the program in 2008 after spending time in jail for being in contempt of court when he sold family assets without approval. So yeah, messy. 

Although Hilary's divorce from her ex Mike Comrie wasn't messy on its own, in a "Call Her Daddy" interview in February 2026, she told Alex Cooper that witnessing her parents' drama impacted her enough that she knew she had to choose happiness, although the end of any relationship is hard. She also consciously divorced when their son Luca wasn't even 2 years old. "I knew that it was going to be better to do it when he was younger than it was going to be when he was five and aware, or eight and aware," she said. 

Hilary Duff and Aaron Carter had an on and off again relationship starting in 2000 when they were both about 13 years old. He first broke up with her after about a year and a half of dating to pursue Lindsay Lohan, who basically became Duff's nemesis at the time. The "So Yesterday" singer eventually rekindled her romance with Carter, though things ended a second time after he was unfaithful. About a decade later, the "I Want Candy" singer admitted he still held a torch for Duff.

Theirs was a young love story that was never meant to be, and Carter died tragically in 2022 from drowning. After his death, Duff posted a heartfelt tribute to her ex on Instagram. "For Aaron — I'm deeply sorry that life was so hard for you and that you had to struggle [in front] of the whole world," Duff wrote. "You had a charm that was absolutely effervescent ... boy did my teenage self love you deeply. Sending love to your family at this time. She told him to "Rest easy" and concluded the message with a heart emoji.

After Carter's death, it was announced that a memoir, written by Andy Symonds, who spent years interviewing him for the project, would be released just a few days later, despite not being completed. Duff slammed this idea, accusing the publisher of rushing the book's release to capitalize on Carter's death — especially as there wouldn't have been enough time to fact-check everything. "To water down Aaron's life story to what seems to be unverified click-bait for profit is disgusting. In no way do I condone shedding any light on what is so obviously an uninformed, heartless, money grab," her statement on the matter said, per E! News. 

Although the details of the rift are unknown (perhaps even to her), Hilary Duff confirmed that the song "We Don't Talk" on "Luck... or Something" is about her sister, Haylie Duff, who is also an actor. "It's definitely about my sister and just absolutely the most lonely part of my existence. It's not having my sister in my life at the moment and [I] really struggled with thinking about including that on the record," she said on "CBS Mornings." The sisters were last photographed grabbing a coffee together in Los Angeles in 2019. 

The lyrics of "We Don't Talk" suggest Hilary is as confused by the rift as the public. The song opens, "I'm not sure when it happened/Not even sure what it was about/If I did something different/Would you feel something different?/Would you at least let me hear you out?" So, it looks like the ball is in Haylie's court, there. 

Hilary also admitted that her relationship with her father, Bob Duff, is ever-changing. "There's times where I talk to my dad and times where I don't talk to my dad," she told Rolling Stone in a February 2026 article. But her lyrics about him on the song "The Optimist" are the most heartbreaking on her new album. "I wish I could sleep on planes, and that my father would really love me," she sings, detailing specifics of what her ideal relationship with him would look like throughout the song. 

On New Year's Day 2026, Ashley Tisdale French published an essay for The Cut about leaving a toxic friend group of fellow moms that allegedly left her out of events all the time. She immediately sent the internet into a tizzy because it didn't take internet sleuths long to speculate that the mom group in question could have consisted of other celebrity moms, including Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, and Meghan Trainor.

Hilary was in the eye of the storm, both because of her level of fame and because her husband, Matthew Koma, posted a satirical response to the essay on social media, defending his wife. But, people online also noticed that Hilary's estranged sister Haylie Duff liked French's post about the essay, and weeks later, Haylie and French posted video clips of their daughters playing together on social media.

"I felt really sad," Hilary said on "Call Her Daddy," reflecting on the drama with Alex Cooper. "I was pretty taken aback and felt just sad. I love, I have so many groups of friends. I'm so lucky. ... I think I just was like, 'Whoa.' It sucks to read something that's not true and it sucks on behalf of like six women and all of their lives." Hilary went on to say she "felt used" by the timing of everything and didn't object when Cooper wondered out loud if the situation would've unfolded how it did if not for Hilary's massively successful return to music.