Hilary Duff was just 6 years old when she, her mom, Susan, and her older sister, Haylie, relocated from Texas to California in pursuit of showbiz. The sisters had previously been enrolled in acting, singing, and ballet classes, and Susan was keen to get them to Hollywood for bigger opportunities while their dad stayed behind to run the family convenience store business.
At first, Hilary booked commercials and minor, uncredited roles in TV shows, with her first major movie role coming in 1998 when she was cast as Wendy in Casper Meets Wendy.
However, her big break came in 2001, when she was cast as the title character in the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. By this point, Hilary was 13 years old, and the show brought her huge success, with an estimated 2 million viewers tuning in for each episode — making Hilary one of the most popular teen stars of the time.
From this point, Hilary’s career went from strength to strength; in 2002, she starred in the Disney Channel television film Cadet Kelly, which became the network’s most-watched program in its 19-year history, and she also landed roles in movies like Cheaper by the Dozen and A Cinderella Story.
In 2003, Lizzie McGuire made her big-screen debut in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which served as the show’s grand finale and was the first-ever theatrical movie based on a Disney Channel series. Later that same year, it was reported that Disney had ended negotiations with Hilary for a sequel film — and this marked the first time that the young actor’s mom found herself in the headlines.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Susan accused Disney of bullying her and her daughter, claiming that she was the one to walk away from the sequel after Disney refused Susan’s proposed salary increase for Hilary.
”Disney thought they’d be able to bully us into accepting whatever offer they wanted to make, and they couldn’t,” Susan told the publication. ”We walked away from a sequel. They walked away from a franchise.”
And now, fellow former child star Frankie Muniz has shared his own bizarre experience with Hilary’s “intense” mom in 2002, which resulted in him not speaking to Hilary for more than 20 years despite them previously being “really, really good friends.”
During an appearance on The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Frankie explained that Hilary was one of his “first friends” when he moved to LA in 1998 at age 12. For reference, he landed his breakout role as Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle two years later.
But while shooting an episode of Lizzie McGuire in 2002, then-16-year-old Frankie had an awkward moment with Hilary’s mom in Hilary’s dressing room. “Her mom was, I’m gonna say, the epitome of a stage mom. Momager. She was intense,” Frankie shared. “Hilary was so cool, we had an awesome relationship, but her mom was super intense.”
Susan asked Frankie what projects he was working on over that summer, and he recalled: “I go: ‘Oh, I’m filming this movie where I’m playing like a junior James Bond. It’s called Agent Cody Banks.’ And she’s like: ‘Is there a girl that could be Hilary, that would be good for Hilary?’ And I was like: ‘Yeah, but I dunno.'”
The very next day, Frankie was left completely blindsided when Susan told him that Hilary now had that role. He said: “The next morning I show up to the set, I go into her dressing room to hang out, and her mom’s like: ‘Guess what? We’re gonna be spending the summer together!’ She was like: ‘We’re gonna be up in Vancouver together!’”
“I’m like: ‘Oh, what’s Hilary filming? Is she filming a movie up there, too? That’s awesome! We’ll get to hang out, we’ll have dinners.’ She goes: ‘No, she’s doing Cody Banks with you,’” Frankie went on. “I looked at her and I went: ‘No, she’s not.’ She’s like: ‘No, yeah, yeah, she is. They signed the contract last night.’”
“And I’m like: ‘The movie you knew nothing about yesterday, you signed… How?! It’s not possible! It’s not humanly possible!’” Frankie continued.
He said that he later called his agents to find out how the casting had happened without his input, as promised. He explained: “I wasn’t mad, it was just shocking, because I had the say, they didn’t ask me. Supposedly, calls were made, and they knew that Hilary and I were really close, and I was filming her show, so they just assumed it was fine.”
“So, needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about it,” Frankie concluded. “And not because I didn’t want it to be Hilary. Just because they went around me.”
He then confirmed that he and Hilary didn’t speak again after working on Agent Cody Banks together, adding: “I was very sad when Hilary’s mom would come on set. I’m being honest, you know what I mean? I’m old enough where I realize I don’t mind people knowing the truth.”
“I’ve never talked to Hilary since the last day of filming. I’ve not said one word to her since then. So that’s the truth that no one knows about,” Frankie went on. “I look back at it now, and I go like: ‘What a dumb…’ I regret not just continuing to be friends with her. We were friends. We had a great friendship for such a long time. And I let her mom… It pisses me off.”
Hilary has not publicly acknowledged Frankie’s comments — let me know what you think down below!
