Hilary Duff Had Major Mom Guilt When Welcoming Her Second Child

As any parent can tell you, mom guilt is real. Just ask Hilary Duff.

The 32-year-old Lizzie McGuire star chatted with PureWow during an interview about her partnership with Zicam and shed some light on how her son, Luca (7), is adjusting since she and husband Matthew Koma welcomed their daughter, Banks (1).  

She was happy to report that even though Luca was skeptical about Banks’s arrival at first, he’s now “100 percent obsessed with her” and Duff is “grateful every day.”

Still, Duff was nervous about expanding her family since she and Luca had been a package deal for so long. “The guilt that I felt for bringing her into the world was so big,” she admitted. “It was just he and I for so long that he was like, ‘Why? Why, Mom? Why would you do this? I really just love the way it is.’ And it wasn’t bratty, it was just so sad.”

Luca’s first reaction led her to panic for a short bit: “I was like, ‘How do I reverse this?! It’s too late now.’ It’s such big feelings. When you’re pregnant, everything just feels more magnified.” (Amen, Hilary.)

But once Banks arrived, Luca sprung into big brother mode almost immediately. “He came in after I had her. I was just holding her, and the look on his face was an absolute shock. He just said, ‘That’s my sister!’ And he had to sneeze, so he ran out of the room and was like, ‘I’ll be right back.’ He let out this huge sneeze in the hallway and said, ‘I had to sneeze and I knew I couldn’t do it in here near her,’” Duff remembered.

That’s when she knew “everything’s going to be OK.” She went on to reflect on what it’s been like watching her children together, saying, “It’s the best. It’s a chemical reaction between siblings sometimes where he knows he has to protect her.”

Now, Duff said, Luca even tries to help keep an eye on Banks. “It’s really sweet the way he looks out for her. But also, sometimes I’m like, ‘Hey, I did OK with you. I promise I know what I’m doing.’”

You definitely do, Hilary.