‘Jealousy’ finally convinced Hilary Duff to break free from 18-year music hiatus

Hilary Duff has confessed it was jealousy that finally convinced her to hit the stage again and break her music hiatus after nearly 20 years.

Speaking to Today after making her triumphant return to Australian shores with her lucky me tour, the So Yesterday singer and mum of four shared a rare insight into the thought process that led her back to the studio and onto the stage.

“I honestly think having my fourth child and my home life looking exactly the way I always imagined it to look gave me that feeling of allowance to start thinking about that part of my life again,” Duff, 39, confessed.

“And then also being jealous that my husband was going into the studio every day and getting to flex creatively and I was home nursing, and getting kids off to school, and packing lunches.

“I was like, ‘I need to do something else.’”

Feeling jealous of singer-songwriter and DJ husband Matthew Koma helped Duff realise she was ready to make another record after more than a decade away from her music career.

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She started working on her 2026 album Luck… or Something and returned to her early catalogue to figure out how she would perform songs she wrote in her teens and 20s as the new, wiser version of herself.

“It all just was like really exciting and scary,” Duff added.

She went on to voice her gratitude for the Australian fans that have stuck by her for decades, even when she stepped away from music for nearly 20 years.

She explained that while working on Luck… or Something, she trusted that the fans who have watched her grow and mature from a child star into a mother would also understand that break and how her music has changed.

“I think it [the record] just happened to meet people when they needed it,” she said.

“If you grew up with me, you’ve gone through some of the s--t that I’ve gone through.”

Duff also spilled on touring with her kids, especially daughters Banks, seven, Mae, four, and Townes, one, who have loved meeting Aussie animals and playing with the confetti at her shows.

As well as her daughter with Koma, Duff has 14-year-old son named Luca with her ex-husband Mike Comrie.

Unlike the girls, who Duff called her “number one fans”, Luca doesn’t seem to think having Lizzie McGuire for a mum is all that cool – but he’s still “very proud” of all his mum has achieved.

“He’s a very thoughtful, sweet guy but I’m not sure if ‘cool’ is the word he’d use to describe me,” she laughed.

Duff is set to hit Melbourne next after she played to sold-out crowds in Sydney over the weekend.

Tens of thousands of millennials packed into Afterpay Arena for her first Sydney shows in 18 years and were promised a night that would bring them back their childhoods.

But did it live up to the nostalgic dream Duff was selling? Read nine.com.au’s review here.