Hilary Duff talks Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift comparisons with her new music as she insists ‘I was here first’

Hilary Duff has opened up on being compared to other female artists, such as Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, declaring: ‘I am older, and I was here first.’

The former Disney star, 38, has returned to music with her new album, Luck… or Something, more than a decade since releasing her last record Breathe In. Breathe Out back in 2015.

Having first found fame playing the lead character in Lizzie McGuire, she began her music career in 2002, with her second album Metamorphosis topping the Billboard 200 chart in 2003. 

Appearing on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie and Lennie Ware, Hilary chatted about going back out on tour for first in 18 years with new LP, which she produced alongside her musician husband Matthew Koma.

The couple are parents to daughters Banks, seven, Mae, four, and Townes, one, together, while the singer also shares 13-year-old son Luca with her first husband, retired ice hockey player Mike Comrie.

Detailing her thoughts on the album, Jessie talked hearing similarities to the music of fellow pop stars, Taylor, 36, and Sabrina, 26, and said that it felt ‘full circle’ as the two singers likely grew up hearing Hilary’s early music. 

Addressing similarities to fellow pop stars, Taylor, 36, (left) and Sabrina, 26, (right) the former Disney star, 38, said she has ‘a really hard time trying to compare to other female artists’

‘I heard lots of these references on the record, maybe I’m wrong, but I could hear a bit of Taylor Swift in there or a bit of Sabrina,’ she said.

‘And we thought about this, and we were like, well they were probably all listening to you. They grew up on you. So it’s kind of gone full circle. Is that right?’

The former Disney appeared hesitant to agree however, as she replied: ‘Well yeah… but I have a really hard time talking about other female artists and trying to compare.’

She explained: ‘The internet is so fast to hear something one time and then be like, “Oh reheated Sabrina”. This cruel Internet take that is so wild. 

‘And you’re like, first of all I am older, and I was here first! And there’s plenty of space, obviously, for everyone.’

Hilary then pointed out that songs often were inspired by music that came before, saying: ‘It’s very hard to be completely original anymore.’

‘You just have to go to the studio and make what you think is cool and what you want to f*****g blast in the car and be alone with your windows down driving,’ she said.

‘That’s the record that I wanted to make, and it’s pop. So pop is popping, and a lot of that takes cues from other songs or sounds.’

Appearing on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie and Lennie Ware (pictured), Hilary chatted about going back out on tour for first in 18 years with new LP, which she produced alongside her musician husband Matthew Koma

But she went on to add that comparisons to Taylor and Sabrina were flattering because they had spent much more time in the music space, with her having taken a nearly 11-year hiatus.

She said: ‘If anything, it’s a compliment, because these women are out there, and it feels like they’ve put a lot more time in than me. I stepped away to have a family.’

Reflecting on her younger years in the spotlight to where she is now elsewhere in the podcast, Hilary shared her regrets over the ‘disintegration’ of her family, following her well-publicised estrangements from her sister Haylie and dad Robert.

Although they were once close and worked together on showbiz projects like the 2006 movie Material Girls – a teen comedy inspired by Sense and Sensibility – the two sisters have not been glimpsed together in public since 2019.

Fuelling rumours of a breakdown in their relationship, Haylie, 41, recently posted to social media sharing the viral article Ashley Tisdale wrote about her departure from a ‘toxic mom group’ that reputedly includes Hilary, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. 

While she recently shared the nature of her relationship with her dad, saying: ‘There’s times where I talk to my dad and times where I don’t talk to my dad. I do have a pretty sunny disposition, but a lot of s*** has gone down, and that’s life,’ via Rolling Stone.

Revealing if she would go back and change anything in her life if she could, Hilary affirmed: ‘Oh gosh, there’s so much I would change! 

‘There’s a lot of like, family trauma and disintegration of family, which has been really challenging, so that would be the thing that I would change the most.’

But she went on to add: ‘But I’ve had a lovely life. I’m so blessed. I get to go home to the amazing family that I’ve created for myself, you know? And I would ship all of this off to always make sure that I had that.’

Hilary has shared her emotional reaction to her falling-out with Haylie on new song, We Don’t Talk, in which she claims to not ‘know when it happened’ and to be ‘not even sure what it was about’ while lamenting the loss of their bond. 

While she didn’t go into why the sisters’ relationship became fractured, the lyrics shed some light on the painful situation.

Reflecting on her younger years in the spotlight to where she is now elsewhere in the podcast, Hilary shared her regrets over the ‘disintegration’ of her family, following her well-publicised estrangements from her sister Haylie and dad Robert (seen with parents in 2003) 

Hilary has shared her emotional reaction to her falling-out with Haylie on new song, We Don’t Talk, in which she claims to not ‘know when it happened’ and to be ‘not even sure what it was about’ while lamenting the loss of their bond (seen in 2010) 

‘If it’s ’cause you’re jealous, God knows I would sell it all, then break you off the bigger half,’ sings Hilary, who has always been the significantly more famous sister.

‘Let’s have it out. I’ll hear you out, you’ll hear me out on the couch, get back to how we were as kids,’ the A Cinderella Story star went on. ‘Let’s break it down. So sick of being so sad about how we don’t talk and you won’t talk about it.’

When We Don’t Talk was released, conjecture exploded that the target was Haylie, and Hilary has since confirmed: ‘It’s definitely about my sister,’ on CBS Mornings.

‘And just absolutely the most lonely part of my existence is not having my sister in my life at the moment,’ she said, explaining that she ‘struggled with thinking about including that on the record’ before deciding to do so ‘because it’s my reality.’

She admitted struggling with thinking about including that on the record, but ultimately included the song ‘because it’s my reality.’

Hilary observed that ‘it’s funny as a person that exists in the world without my other half, so many people are having that experience.’ 

She confessed she was ‘not sure’ that the song would ‘help’ repair her relationship with Haylie and that ‘I don’t know if she’ll hear it. I don’t know how she’ll react to it. But it is a really personal part of my life that doesn’t get to stay personal.’

The How I Met Your Father actress added that she was ‘not trying to say something bad, it’s literally just my experience. That’s really all I feel like sharing.’

While the mother-of-four also reveals her difficult relationship with father, Robert, not speaking with him and trying to win his approval in song The Optimist.

The track contains the bristling lyric: ‘I wish I could sleep on planes and that my father would really love me.’ 

Her parents Robert and Susan Duff divorced in 2008, 20 years after they exchanged vows and four years after the end of Hilary’s star-making show Lizzie McGuire.

Robert spent 10 days in a Texas jail for contempt after a judge found that he had sold family assets without court approval, thus violating an injunction.

He later confessed: ‘I was unfaithful to our marriage. I feel very badly about that and the effect it had on the girls,’ while appearing on Inside Edition.