Hilary Duff Opens up About Guilt Over Daughter Banks, Son Luca’s Reaction to Pregnancy

Hilary Duff is opening up about the mom guilt she experienced after giving birth to her second child, daughter Banks Violet Bair. Speaking with PureWow, the Lizzie McGuire star revealed that although she and her now-husband Matthew Koma were thrilled at their family’s newest addition, her oldest son Luca, 7, had a much harder time adjusting, leaving her experiencing a bout of guilt for the major shakeup little Banks meant for her son.

“The guilt that I felt for bringing her into the world was so big,” she told the outlet. “It was just he and I for so long that he was like, ‘Why? Why, Mom? Why would you do this? I really just love the way it is.’ And it wasn’t bratty, it was just so sad.”

After learning that she was pregnant, something that she and Koma announced in June of 2018, the actress said that she asked herself, “‘How do I reverse this?! It’s too late now.’ It’s such big feelings. When you’re pregnant, everything just feels more magnified.”

Despite the initial worry, Duff soon realized that everything would work out, recalling the touching moment just minutes after she gave birth to Banks in October of 2018 when Luca’s attitude towards his baby sister completely shifted.

“He came in after I had her. I was just holding her, and the look on his face was an absolute shock,” the Younger star recalled. “He just said, ‘That’s my sister!’ And he had to sneeze, so he ran out of the room and was like, ‘I’ll be right back.’ He let out this huge sneeze in the hallway and said, ‘I had to sneeze and I knew I couldn’t do it in here near her.’”

The moment, Duff said, made her realize that “everything’s going to be OK.”

“It’s the best. It’s a chemical reaction between siblings sometimes where he knows he has to protect her,””she said of the relationship between Luca and Banks. “It’s really sweet the way he looks out for her. But also, sometimes I’m like, ‘Hey, I did OK with you. I promise I know what I’m doing.’”

Banks is Duff’s first child with husband Matthew Koma, whom she recently tied the knot to in an intimate ceremony at their Los Angeles home. She shares Luca with her ex-husband Mike Comrie.

Recently, Duff celebrated Banks’ first birthday, writing on social media that “you made mommy a mommy again, you made daddy a daddy(the absolute best) you made bruvah a brother (the absolute best).”