Source: Entertainment Weekly

Hilary Duff is so relieved that the tabloid era is behind her.

The 38-year-old Lizzie McGuire alum, who rose to fame as a teenager in the early 2000s, recently looked back on some of the “silly scandals” that plagued her when she was still coming of age. Among them was speculation about a condom in her bag at 17 — a conversation that quickly caught the attention of her mother.

“I grew up in the time of scandal and everybody wanted to catch me doing something bad,” Duff told Therapuss host Jake Shane in an interview published Thursday. Asked to name a specific instance, she continued, “I was crossing the street with my friend Marco, and I was in front of Kitson, and it was when jelly bags were cool. Like see-through jelly bags and a paparazzi took a picture of me and was like, ‘There’s a condom in her bag.'”

Two decades later, Duff doesn’t even remember if they were right. “I don’t know if it was a condom or like a valet ticket. It was a square piece of paper in my bag,” she said. “And all of a sudden, I got a phone call from my mom and she was like, ‘Is there a condom in your bag? And blah, blah, blah.’ I just remember feeling like, ‘I’m in trouble! I’m caught! I did something bad!”

In retrospect, Duff doesn’t see the big deal. At 17, she was “just a normal-aged” teenager doing normal teenager things. “I don’t know if it was a condom,” she adds, joking, “I think I’m being safe.”

Shane then chimed in, “There’s accounts like Getty Image Fanclubs that post like throwback and stuff — apparently that was photoshopped.”

Indeed, some Duff fans and web sleuths speculate that the original snap was doctored. A fan account with the username @sohilaryduff on Instagram posted the photos in 2021 and wrote, “I bet you didn’t know the infamous photo of Hilary with a see through purse in 2004, that got a lot of attention bc apparently she had a condom inside it, was fake now did ya?”

In retrospect, Duff doesn’t see the big deal. At 17, she was “just a normal-aged” teenager doing normal teenager things. “I don’t know if it was a condom,” she adds, joking, “I think I’m being safe.”

Shane then chimed in, “There’s accounts like Getty Image Fanclubs that post like throwback and stuff — apparently that was photoshopped.”

Indeed, some Duff fans and web sleuths speculate that the original snap was doctored. A fan account with the username @sohilaryduff on Instagram posted the photos in 2021 and wrote, “I bet you didn’t know the infamous photo of Hilary with a see through purse in 2004, that got a lot of attention bc apparently she had a condom inside it, was fake now did ya?”

Even in 2005, fans were posting in fashion forums about the suspicious coloring of the so-called condom, theorizing that it was photoshopped into the purse. As for Duff, she maintains that her memory isn’t clear enough for her to confirm or deny either way.

“I can’t recall,” she told Shane. “I just remember getting the phone call from my mom and being like, ‘S—!’ I was a normal teenager, I did normal things and I don’t recall at all, but I remember that being a big deal.”

For many millennials, Duff was a household name before she was even out of high school. The former child star landed a role on Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire at 13 in 2001 and gained further notoriety for roles in A Cinderella Story, Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper By The Dozen, Cadet Kelly and The Lizzie McGuire Movie. She was also part of Disney’s actress-to-pop star pipeline, releasing five albums across her career. Her comeback single, “Mature,” will be released Thursday.

Duff shared that handling the fame in her youth was no simple task, especially considering the tabloid frenzy of the era.

“I just remember having to deal with paparazzi everywhere I went. And my sweet friends, my friends would be my bodyguard,” she recalled. “I think part of it was there was a tiny, tiny portion that was kind of fun and exciting. And then it got old really fast and then we were all really sick of it.”

She added that the cameras following her now are nothing compared to the “hordes of them” that used to be everywhere. She went on to note that it continued well beyond her teen years, with paparazzi trailing her even when she was pregnant int he early 2010s.

“They love to do it to a pregnant woman, which is like the worst possible time to want to be followed around,” Duff said. “Just every single location, every single stop you’re making throughout the day, they’re there. And they’re driving crazy and they don’t care and they break all the rules, and they have no respect for you.”

Thankfully, Duff said, tabloid culture and the paparazzi approaches have “changed a lot.” She then paused and quipped, “Or people don’t care about me anymore. I don’t know which one.”

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