Hilary Duff Shares Her Journey to Loving Her Body After Three Kids

Hilary Duff is opening up about her body image after three kids.

In a recent interview with Women’s Health, the actress spoke about her relationship with her body throughout her life, revealing she had struggled with maintaining beauty standards in Hollywood. She also shared she struggled with a year-long eating disorder at 17. However, in recent years and following the birth of her three kids—Luca, 10, Banks, 3, and Mae, 1—she’s chosen to forge her own path. “I’m proud of my body…I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through,” she told the outlet. In fact, this acceptance was one of the driving forces behind her decision to pose nude for her Women’s Health cover.

“I think that at 34 I have just gained a lot of respect for my body. It’s taken me all of the places I need to go. It’s helped me build a beautiful family,” she added. “I feel like the older I get, the more confident I get in my own skin. And my body’s been many different shapes and sizes and I’m really just fascinated by, one, being a woman. And two, all the changes that your body can go through throughout your lifetime.”

As for when she started to fully accept her body, Duff revealed it happened after she had her second child, Banks. “I didn’t even know if I was going to have the opportunity to have another child [after the divorce]. So, being a mom again, maybe. It was a whole mix of things—of being settled and realizing that I’m powerful and talented and smart. All mental things,” she said. The actress also shared she recently got a tattoo that reads “Mother” on her neck.

While she loves her life as a mom, Duff also stressed the importance of the routines that kept her afloat, like eating takeout in bed with husband Matthew Koma once the kids are asleep and finding a consistent workout routine with her trainer.

Duff is also committed to going to therapy and is trying to normalize it for her children should they ever feel they want or need it. The actress said therapy has been wonderful because she can speak freely without fear of judgement. “Everybody needs that,” she said. “We bust our a** to get our bodies in shape and to look the best we can. We get facials and Botox and our hair done and highlights and brows and lash lifts…But I want to work on the inside. That’s the most important part of the system.”