How Becoming A Mom Made Hilary Duff Love Her Body Again

Sarah Kester
Hilary Duff and her daughter
instagram | Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff is baring all ⁠— literally.

For the first time in her long Hollywood career (she began playing the iconic Lizzie McGuire when she was just 14), she posed naked for Women's Health magazine.

She could have done this before she had her three kids, Luca, 10, Banks, 3, and Mae, 1, before motherhood changed her body forever. But it was actually becoming a mom that made Hilary love her body again.

Body love hasn't always come easy for the 34-year-old star.

Hilary Duff smiling
instagram | Hilary Duff

Being in the spotlight from a young age meant that the actress dealt with pressure to look a certain way.

“Because of my career path, I can’t help but be like, ‘I am on camera and actresses are skinny,’” she told Women's Health.

This pressure caused her to battle with a year-long eating disorder when she was just 17.

Hilary duff hugging someone in younger
Giphy | YoungerTV

“It was horrifying,” she said. Thankfully, she was able to overcome the eating disorder and learn to view food as a source of joy again.

“We eat butter in this house, and olive oil, and sodium, and sugar,” Hilary said of her family's favorites.

Hilary Duff on couch
instagram | Hilary Duff

One of her favorite snacks is a deviled egg, which she gets super fresh from the chicken coop in the backyard of her home.

With intimate information about her eating disorder, it's safe to say that the world is getting used to a new Hilary.

Lizzie McGuire
Giphy

She's no longer the awkward teenager we saw on Lizzie McGuire as kids.

She's been married twice: first to hockey player Mike Comrie and then her now-husband, Matthew Koma.

She's also a proud mother of three kids.

Showing up as an authentic, relatable adult is important for Hilary.

It's why she fought so hard for the reboot of Lizzie McGuire to actually show what a 30-year-old woman is like.

“She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things," Hilary told 'Women's Health'.

Hilary Duff
Giphy | HULU

“She didn’t need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked," she said of Disney+ tanking the project.

Well, when a door closes in Hollywood, a window opens somewhere!

That's how Hilary landed the role of Sophie in the reboot, How I Met Your Father.

With fashionable outfits and talk about real adult things, like money and sex, she said that grown-up Lizzie would've been friends with Sophie.

Sophie is a lot like real-life Hilary: real, optimistic, and learning to be fearless.

Sophie in How I Met Your Father
Giphy | HULU

So when it came to her decision to bare all for her Women's Health cover, it was an "extremely thoughtful and deliberate" one.

“I’m proud of my body. I’m proud that it’s produced three children for me. I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through."

She made sure to remind fans of the Hollywood magic that helped her out.

Hilary Duff posing
instagram | Hilary Duff

"I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body and someone put me in the most flattering position.”

When asked about when she found peace with her body, she said it was after having her daughter, Banks.

Hilary Duff with her kids
instagram | Hilary Duff

"I didn’t even know if I was going to have the opportunity to have another child [after the divorce]," she intimately shared.

"So, being a mom again, maybe."

Hilary Duff and her daughter
instagram | Hilary Duff

"It was a whole mix of things—of being settled and realizing that I’m powerful and talented and smart," she continued.

"All mental things," she added. Her love of being a mom really is skin deep; she recently got the word Mother tattoed on her neck.

Read the full interview with Women's Health here.

H/T: Women's Health