If your feeds are suddenly full of Haylie Duff today, you are not imagining it. Interest in the actor and food personality has spiked across the U.S. after her younger sister Hilary Duff used both national TV and new music to speak openly about their painful estrangement.
On February 20, 2026, Hilary sat down with the team at CBS Mornings and confirmed that her new song “We Don’t Talk” from the album luck… or something is about the fact that she and her sister are not in each other’s lives right now. She called that distance “the most lonely part of my existence” and said she wrestled with whether to release the song at all before deciding that the record had to reflect her real life.
Who Haylie Duff Is And Where You Might Know Her From
Haylie Katherine Duff was born February 19, 1985, in Houston, Texas, and has been working in film and TV since the late 1990s. She is best known for roles like Sandy Jameson on 7th Heaven, Amy Sanders on Lizzie McGuire, and popular girl Summer Wheatley in the cult film Napoleon Dynamite.
Beyond acting, Haylie has built a second lane around food and lifestyle. She launched the Real Girl’s Kitchen blog, which later became a Cooking Channel series where she shared recipes tied to her life in Los Angeles and New York.
She has also hosted travel-food show Haylie’s America and kept a steady run of TV movies and streaming projects, including holiday titles like Blending Christmas and romance film Sweet on You.
Off-screen, Haylie has been engaged to partner Matt Rosenberg for several years. Together they have two daughters, Ryan Ava (born 2015) and Lulu Gray (born 2018), a family life she has spoken about often in past interviews and on social media.
The Song Putting Haylie Back In The Headlines
The reason Haylie’s name is trending today actually starts with Hilary’s music. After more than a decade away from albums, Hilary has returned with luck… or something, an 11-track record co-written with her husband, musician Matthew Koma.
One of the key songs, “We Don’t Talk”, addresses an estranged relationship with her sister, and outlets including Billboard and People report that she has now said clearly that the track is about Haylie.
In the lyrics, Hilary sings about growing up in the same house, feeling pressure to pretend everything is fine when people ask about her sister, and wishing they could sit down and talk things through. Coverage of the album notes that the song sits alongside other very personal tracks about her marriage, motherhood, and her relationship with their father.
What Hilary Has Said About Their Estrangement
A lot of the conversation online is fans trying to guess what caused the rift. Hilary herself has stayed away from those kinds of details.
In recent interviews, she has described her wider family dynamic as “complicated” and said that “a lot of stuff has gone down” over the years, but she has not laid out a specific timeline or incident.
Instead, she has focused on how the estrangement feels. She told reporters that not having her sister in her life “at the moment” is the most isolating part of her world, even as she celebrates a big career comeback.
She also said she debated leaving “We Don’t Talk” off the album because putting it out means a private hurt becomes public, yet she chose honesty, in part because so many listeners live with similar family distance.
Reports from outlets like E! News and others point out that the sisters have not been photographed together in public since 2019 and rarely interact on each other’s social media anymore, which has fueled years of speculation long before the new record arrived.
What Haylie Duff Is Doing Now
Haylie, for her part, has not given a detailed public interview about the situation with her sister. Recent coverage instead has focused on her quieter signals and her own projects. Early this year, she drew notice for liking an essay by actor Ashley Tisdale in *The Cut about leaving a “toxic mom group”, a piece many readers linked to a circle of celebrity moms that reportedly included Hilary.
Soon after, Haylie and Ashley shared a lighthearted snap from a playdate between their daughters on Instagram, another moment that kept Haylie’s name in the news without her ever mentioning the feud directly.
Day to day, though, Haylie’s public work still leans toward food, lifestyle, and family. She has a cookbook tied to Real Girl’s Kitchen, previously fronted two food-focused TV series, and co-founded the children’s clothing line Little Moon Society, adding business owner to her list of roles.
Why This Story Hits Home For So Many Fans
For a lot of people who grew up watching the Duff sisters act, sing, and appear together in interviews, it is jarring to hear that they are no longer close. At the same time, Hilary has pointed out that many fans know exactly what this feels like, whether the distance is with a sibling or a parent.
For readers trying to follow along, that is the key thing to hold onto today: you can stay informed about the facts, connect with the themes in the music, and still leave room for this family to work through their history in private.
