Hilary Duff has spoken candidly about the profound emotional consequences of her parents’ divorce years after their separation. The actor and singer discussed the impact during a recent appearance on the podcast “On Purpose with Jay Shetty.” She revealed that her parents, Robert and Susan Duff, ended their 20-year marriage in 2008 when she was around 18.
“My parents divorced when I was around 18. And I feel like that was a really hard time,” Hilary Duff said. “Because I was kind of an adult, and then you’re like, did they just stay together to get us to this point? And now you have guilt that they were unhappy.”
Duff noted the long-term effects on her relationship with her father. “We don’t speak very often,” she admitted. “The estrangement has left me without ‘a whole bunch of answers.’ You kind of hear one side and then take from it what you believe, and you know, the same on the other. It’s really hard, I think, if a family breaks apart very dramatically.”
The divorce occurred during a turbulent period for the family. In 2008, Robert Duff was ordered to spend 10 days in jail for contempt of court during a trial over violations of an injunction that prohibited him from selling family assets without court approval.
Duff also explained how witnessing her parents’ separation influenced her approach to her own divorce from former NHL player Mike Comrie in 2016. “When it came for me getting divorced, I was like, ‘I’m not going to have that,’” she said. “We’re going to do holidays together as much as we can.”
“Not that it was always easy, but it felt way easier than the alternative,” Duff added.
The “Lizzie McGuire” star has since remarried and is currently married to musician-producer Matthew Koma, with whom she has three children. She also addressed speculation in a separate interview about lyrics from her recently released sixth studio album, “Luck … or Something,” which some believed referenced family members.
“That’s my family,” Duff said. “Those are the people that affect you the most, take up the most space naturally as a human who’s born into something.”
“Just because you’re born into a family doesn’t mean it always stays together. You can only control your side and your street … I’ve had a very complicated life, and my parents had a very complicated thing.”
“I know it’s not rare, and I think it goes back to the theme of, ‘Why share now?’ I guess I just felt ready.”
