Hilary Duff is unafraid to bare her soul when discussing her family dynamics. The 'How I Met Your Father' alum candidly shared her intricate relationship with her parents, Bob and Susan Duff, in the context of the lyrics of "The Optimist" from her new album 'Luck... or Something.'
"Being vulnerable and open about what it's like to be in a family where your parents aren't together and you don't have relationships with both of them is devastating," she said on the March 9 episode of 'On Purpose With Jay Shetty.' "It doesn't matter what age you are; you want your parents to feel like they care about you. And a significant portion of my existence hasn't felt that way."
"I don't know if that's the truth," Hilary added, "but that's how it feels." The 38-year-old, who shares son Luca, 13, with ex-husband Mike Comrie, and Banks, 7, May, 4, and Townes, 22 months, with husband Matthew Koma, elaborated on her particularly strained relationship with her father following their parents' 2008 divorce. She admitted that efforts to repair their bond haven't been successful.
"My dad and I don't really have much of a relationship, and we don't speak very often," she shared. "It's really hard when a family breaks apart very dramatically. It's hard to find your way back sometimes—some people want to and some people don't."
Hilary has also had a challenging dynamic with her sister Haylie Duff in recent years, with their estrangement inspiring another new song, "We Don't Talk." In fact, the former Disney Channel star noted that her fractured sibling bond was more common than she initially realized.
"In my adulthood, I've come across more and more people that are having this experience," Hilary explained on the podcast. "And as painful as it feels to share, when I decided to make this record, I could only talk about the things that I've gone through. There would be no purpose to make a record after 10 years [other] than to face what it's been like. So that's my truth."
