Coming Clean

Hilary Duff Proves You Can Be BFFs With An Ex

The former Disney Channel star opened about how she and her ex Joel Madden, along with his wife Nicole Richie, "actually hang out all the time."

Hilary Duff and her ex Joel Madden are still close friends. The former Disney Channel star talked ab...
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Being on good terms with an ex is one thing, but exes Hilary Duff and Joel Madden are on a whole other level. The How I Met Your Father star opened up about how she and her husband Matthew Koma and Madden and his wife Nicole Richie “actually hang out all the time” and are close family friends.

“I have a good relationship with their whole family,” Duff explained on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. She and Koma — who shares daughters Banks and Violet with Koma, along with son Luca from her previous marriage to Mike Comrie — shared.

"I think people were [blown away]. We’re neighbors and we actually hang out all the time,” Duff said, referencing a date night she and Koma had with Madden and Richie, along with Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and partner Meagan Camper last year.

“I was just in her driveway honking for her to come drink wine with us the other day,” Duff told Cohen, noting that the Simple Life alum couldn’t make it to drinks since she was “asleep by 8.”

The two couples have formed a fast friendship. “But now we get them to hike together all the time,” she noted. “And you know what? It’s lovely.”

Duff also noted that her husband is a bit of a “troll” and had a special surprise for when their new neighbors first moved in.

"My husband is a giant troll, it's one of my favorite things about him," Duff noted. "Right when they moved in, for some reason Matt Photoshopped a picture of Joel and [brother Benji Madden] in a photo with me on Valentine's Day with like, 'Happy Valentine's Day, Honey.' "

Duff and Madden dated from 2004 to 2006, when Duff was 16 to 19 years old, respectively. The two largely kept their relationship private due to speculation about the age gap between her and Madden, who was 25 at the time they started dating. Duff met Koma in 2013 while working on her 2015 album Breathe In, Breathe Out.