Hilary Duff Candidly Recalls Becoming a Mom at 24: ‘It Was a Little Isolating’

Hilary Duff recently spoke candidly about what it was like becoming a mom at 24, recalling how it “was a little isolating.” The actress had her first child in 2011 — a son named Luca Comrie — with her ex-husband Mike Comrie. During an interview with The Motherly Podcast, Duff opened up about her experience, saying, “I guess I thought like you’re a real adult once you have a baby. But, that looked very different than how I looked. Like, when I think of my parents when I was like ten or so, I feel like they looked so old even though they didn’t.”

“My perception was like, ‘Oh, you have all the answers and you know all the things. Everything you say goes because you are God.’ I think that very quickly when I became pregnant that shifted into like, this is just me, but I’m going to have to be that person to somebody,” she added. “I guess I’m saying it in a very simple way, but I very much felt like myself and a little fearful that I wasn’t going to have all the answers…It looked like maybe an older person’s job to be a parent.”

Duff then went on to explain her feelings after having Luca, admitting, “It was a little isolating in the beginning because I didn’t have any friends that had babies yet. But I had been working for such a long time that it felt like a natural step for me and I always knew I wanted to be a mom and I always knew that was going to be my number one priority in life. So, I felt ready on some fronts and a little scared on others, but really I only got scared once I was pregnant, you know, thinking like, ‘Oh this is actually really happening. What if this? What if that?’”

Eventually, however, she says that things began to turn around and her feelings toward her situation changed. “I did feel like after I had him, I lost a big chunk of my identity for like maybe the first year and a half, but I don’t think that was a negative thing,” she said.

“At times, I was sad about it, but you know it’s full on. I don’t remember setting him down for the first three months of life. I was obsessively googling things and I just took it really seriously that I didn’t realize how all encompassing it would be,” Duff continued. “I knew it was the most important, biggest job in the world but you know, it looks very different once you’re just in the household with the baby by yourself all the time.”

It was shocking and it was also the happiest, most beautiful experience, so those two things butting up against each other is quite a strange mix sometimes,” the actress finally said.

Since 2017, Duff has been in a relationship with musician Matthew Koma, with the couple welcoming a daughter in October 2018.