Welcome back, Hilary Duff’s Dignity era. The pop star’s long-awaited return to music came with an unexpected revival of her moodiest album. When Dignity was released in 2007, Duff had recently broken up with her boyfriend Joel Madden. And now, on her new release “Mature,” Duff seems to be delving back into to that relationship, at least partly. But the song isn’t bothering Madden at all.
In “Mature,” Duff reflects on a past relationship that had a significant age gap. In the chorus, Duff marvels at the new young girlfriend her older ex has moved on with: “She looks / Like all of your girls but blonder / A little like me, just younger / Bet she loves when she hears you say/ ‘You’re so mature for your age, babe.’”
Duff revealed the lyrics are about an experience she’s had in the past when talking about the song on the Therapuss podcast. “It’s myself talking to my younger self about an experience that we had and just reflecting on it,” Duff explained. “And accepting your past and being good with where you landed.”
For those familiar with Duff’s past, the lyrics and description immediately call to mind her relationship with Madden from 2004 to 2006, which has been widely criticized for the large difference in their ages — Duff was 16 when they began seeing each other, while Madden was 25.
However, while that relationship may have partially inspired “Mature,” the song seemingly isn’t meant as a jab at Madden. At least, he’s not taking it that way. Upon its release, Madden posted a selfie with Duff’s husband Matthew Koma promoting the song, tagging Duff and his wife Nicole Richie (thought to be the “blonder” girl in the chorus) to show there’s no bad blood.
Madden’s response may seem surprising to some, but he’s actually developed a close friendship with Duff in recent years, so much so that Koma even dressed up as Madden for Halloween last year.
While Madden may be Duff’s most famous age-gap ex, the “Mature” lyrics don’t fully line up with him, which has led to a bit of a conspiracy theory that Duff may actually have had a secret relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. Several of the lines seem to reference DiCaprio, most notably: “Very Leo of you with your Scorpio touch” (DiCaprio is a Scorpio). Duff also mentions girls being “impressed by your Basquiat” (DiCaprio is known to own works by Basquiat), and hiding her car at Carbon Beach, where DiCaprio famously owns property.
However, these lyrics may just be playing on DiCaprio’s infamous quality of dating much younger women, rather than revealing any real-life connection. Whatever the case, Duff has matured past the point of worrying about these men anymore.
