I had been planning to make a post about some things I came across when I was trying to do a deep dive on Hilary Duff — this will be the perfect thread. I saw she’s making a bit of a comeback in popularity again and that had me wondering about her “role(s)” in Hollyweird and how she’s maintained fame for so long. Every few years her name seems to pop up again for a while, even though I’m unaware of her doing any major work in music or TV. (Ok - looking at Wikipedia it seems she’s had some stuff going on in TV in the last few years, mostly small roles or one time appearances, but also a lead role and producer on the show “How I Met Your Father.”) She always seemed to be one of the Disney child stars who made it through unscathed (of course I thought this prior to understanding the ways of the elite and the rich and the famous) — she was (seemingly) never involved in huge public scandals or known drug use or falling apart like some of the other Disney stars who come to mind. Anyway, in doing a deeper dive on her I didn’t immediately find anything blatant — I found a few magazine covers where her hair slightly covered one eye to make a one eye sign, but nothing super explicit like I see with some celebrities. However, I did find some other disturbing things.
First — back in 2004, Hilary Duff and Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden started a relationship. She was 16 at the start of their relationship and he was 25! After growing public speculation about their relationship, Hilary’s mother (
) announced the relationship during an interview with Seventeen magazine in 2005. Her mother?! It’s bad enough that she was allowing the relationship, but then chose to flaunt it in Seventeen magazine, a magazine for impressionable teenagers?? Obviously this is not normal or okay in any way, and yet it was made out to be. Apparently the “industry embraced it,” (go figure) including a Teen People cover page with an exclusive interview about their relationship. I am one year younger than Hilary and I thought the Madden brothers were the hottest guys on the face of the earth at that time. I do not remember knowing that they were 10 years older than me, but I guarantee I would have thought it was sooo cool that Hilary was dating a 25 year old if it had been published as such in Seventeen magazine. They broke up 2 years later, in 2006. There is an article from 2015, written by Abby Schreiber from PAPER Magazine (who I certainly don’t trust, I find lots of one eye signs in their photos) which “called out” the media for never stating the fact that the relationship was criminal. (I cannot find the article on the internet - even the link to it from Abby’s collection of articles for PAPER Magazine turns up as a dead end.) Side note, PAPER Magazine later called her “the Disney pop star prototype”, while pointing out that her 2007 album Dignity was her transition from innocence “…into the mature world of moral complexity, partying, and sex.” Coincidentally, that article also includes a nice candid photo of Hilary performing, in which, as expected, her hair is conveniently covering one eye entirely.
Some Reddit comments surrounding this gross relationship mentioned that there was alleged drug use going on during this time (seems believable) which was covered up by Hilary’s manager/team. Notably, Hilary got very thin which added to the speculation of drug use. I watched an interview on The View where she is touted for “looking amazing” (she looks way too thin and has a sunken face) and she shares how she’s been exercising and eating a cleaner diet. (Interview is here, this particular part is around 4:40 mark.) Even while she says it, there’s a look in her eyes that says she’s hiding something, she avoids eye contact with the other women, and takes a sort of hesitant audible breath before she answers. Later, in 2014, she shares in an interview that she was 98 pounds and “obsessed with food.” I did not find any confirmation on the drug use theory, but she certainly looks very unhealthy.
In a 2016 podcast, Hilary stated that her relationship with Joel Madden was “so all-encompassing” and “so intense” that “it felt like her entire life.” Again, keep in mind, she was a TEENAGER dating an ADULT in his mid-twenties! Here is an excerpt from Cosmopolitan in 2015: “People have always wondered about Duff’s s*x life, mainly when, exactly, she swiped her V card. ‘I had a 26-year-old boyfriend,’ she says, referring to Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden, who she started dating when she was a teen. ‘So everyone can make their own assumptions about what I was doing.’” Yes, we can assume, and it’s horrible.
Second – my Reddit searching led to a story from 2020 in which Hilary Duff posted a photo of a table covered in photos, including a photo of her oldest son naked. (In 2020 he would have been 7 or 8, I cannot guess his age in the photo.) There is a white substance (like lotion) squirted on his chest, upper abdomen, arms. (At the time, some thought it was plastic wrap, others thought it was tape, and some thought it was lotion. It looks like lotion to me but it’s hard to tell.) On Twitter, a girl named Madison Lane shared the photo and called out Hilary Duff, suggesting that Hilary was using the photo to traffic her own son. Jenna Jameson shared the post calling Hilary out as well. The articles I found about this incident are very much “poor Hilary, people are crazy QAn0n conspiracy theorists and sickos, not everything is devil worship, etc.” Hilary removed the post (I believe it was an Instagram story), and tweeted a response saying “…this is actually disgusting…” and people should “maybe get a hobby.” Yes, I know that I’m likely considered a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t see why, in a million years, as a celebrity with TONS of social media followers, you would ever consider sharing a photo that includes your CHILD NAKED?? It’s hard to believe it was anything other than something sinister because you don’t have to be very intelligent to realize how sick that is to share with millions of people. Also, I will add, I find the photo to be even more disturbing because of the way her son is laying on the bed, like an anatomy diagram, with an expressionless face. It’s creepy.
Would love to hear thoughts and theories about Hilary, or other information you know/remember about her from her many years in the spotlight. Even before finding VC and knowing what I know now, she gave me questionable vibes – not that I knew much about her. I loved Lizzie McGuire back in the day, haha. But when you stay relevant for so long…