Since the moment that Hilary Duff dropped her single, “Mature,” fans have been making wild guesses as to who might have inspired it. Duff still isn’t naming names, but she will confirm that there’s a true story behind the lyrics.
“It’s definitely about a relationship that I had,” she told Glamour in her cover interview.
In the song, Duff sings, “She looks/Like she could be your daughter/Like me before I got smarter/When I was flattered to hear you say/’You’re so mature for your age, babe.’” The track also includes a few specific details, including, “Bet she’s so impressed by your Basquiat,” and, “Listening to Strawberry Letter 23/Hid my car at Carbon Beach so I wasn’t seen at yours.”
Explaining the backstory, Duff said to Glamour, “It was very brief with someone older than me, and that was not illegal, but inappropriate when you have this much time removed from it.”
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The internet’s most popular theory is that the song is about Joel Madden, who is Duff dated for two years when she was 16 and he was 25. Others think the lyrics refer to Leonardo DiCaprio—who isn’t known to have had a relationship with Duff, but who does have a bit of a reputation for dating much younger women.
While Hilary Duff won’t confirm or deny anything, she does think some folks on the internet may be missing some of the nuances to the situation.
“Everybody speculates, but I’m not sure they got it right…. I think that it’s super nuanced, and it’s hard to defend certain things that have happened in my life,” Duff said to Glamour. She added, “But the one thing that I’ll say is, working as an adult since I was 10 years old, it’s very hard to have relationships with people your own age.”