Hilary Duff Artistfacts

September 28, 1987
Hilary Duff was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up alongside her younger sister Haylie Duff, who also pursued a career in acting and music. Through her family lineage, Duff is a distant descendant of Robert The Bruce, the 13th-century King of Scotland.
Duff was homeschooled from age 10 to accommodate her acting schedule. She later took online courses in environmental science, government, and sociology through Harvard Extension School (though she did not earn a degree).
Her first major acting role came in the 1998 TV movie Casper Meets Wendy, where she played Wendy the Good Witch. She became a household name (at least in households with kids) at 14 as the title character on Lizzie McGuire, a role she almost didn't get. Duff wasn't cast, but she re-auditioned and ultimately won the part. Her favorite episode of the series is "First Kiss," in which Lizzie shares a kiss with the paperboy.
While filming A Cinderella Story in 2004, Duff earned her driver's license by driving herself between shooting locations for the film.
Her first album, Santa Claus Lane (2002), was a Disney Christmas release, but her mainstream pop breakthrough came with Metamorphosis in 2003. The album sold over 5 million copies worldwide and is widely credited with helping stabilize Hollywood Records during a financially uncertain period. It remains one of the most successful pop debuts of the early 2000s by a Disney-affiliated artist.
In 2006, she expanded into fragrance with With Love… Hilary Duff, which became one of the top-selling celebrity perfumes of the year.
Unlike many of her Disney peers, Duff transitioned into adult pop music gradually, avoiding a sudden image overhaul.
From 2015 to 2021, Duff starred as Kelsey Peters on TV Land's Younger, playing a sharp, ambitious editor in the publishing world. In January 2016, she released a sultry cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies" to promote the show, an interpretation many fans cite as a standout musical moment in the series.
Duff married Canadian NHL player Mike Comrie in 2010, and they welcomed a son, Luca, in 2012. After an amicable separation in 2014, their divorce was finalized in 2016, with Duff retaining their Beverly Hills home and paying Comrie a settlement equal to half its value.
Around 2015, Duff met songwriter Matthew Koma while working on her album Breathe In. Breathe Out. After dating and splitting, the couple reunited in 2017 and married on December 21, 2019, in a small ceremony at their Los Angeles home. Their relationship has directly shaped Duff's later songwriting, as heard on the track "Roommates," which candidly examines long-term partnership and domestic life.
In 2021, Duff co-created the Smash + Tess Mommy & Me clothing line, focused on comfortable loungewear.
She has spoken openly about postpartum changes, body image and aging, with her nude Women's Health cover helping normalize those conversations for fans who grew up alongside her.
Hilary Duff delivered the commencement address for Northeastern University's Class of 2026 at Fenway Park in Boston on April 29, 2026. "By simply accepting what the world was offering to me, I was losing my own voice," she said. "I was reacting, instead of asking myself what I really wanted. That realization was a paradigm shift for me."

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