Hilary Duff bares all for nude Women's Health cover story

Lizzie McGuire star Hilary Duff is baring it all and stripping down to basics for her new cover story in the June issue of Women’s Health. We mean that literally and figuratively, as she talks bravely about her mental health and her relationship with her body all while posing in fierce and proud nude photos for the magazine.

Wearing nothing but a smile in most of the photos, the 34-year-old How I Met Your Father star says that she has nothing but pride for her body at this age, but also wants everyone to know that she had all kinds of help from a trainer and makeup artist.

“I'm proud of my body. I’m proud that it’s produced three children for me. I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through,” she  tells the outlet, before admitting,  “I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body and someone put me in the most flattering position.” 

She continues, "I think that, at 34, I have just gained a lot of respect for my body. It's taken me all the places I need to go. It's helped me build a beautiful family. I feel like the older I get, the more confident I get in my own skin ... I'm really just fascinated by one, being a woman. And two, all the changes that your body can go through throughout your lifetime."

The Younger alum is mum to Luca, 10, Banks, 3, and Mae, 1, and admits that for three months leading up to the WH shoot, she worked out four days a week with a trainer, doing everything from jumping lunges and weighted squats, to single-leg bent-over dumbbell rows and tricep pushdowns.

On her days off, she’d play tennis or go for a hike. “I slept better, I felt better,” she says of getting her body into shape.

She also opened up about getting her mental health and well-being into shape, swearing by therapy and letting her children know they always have it as an option.

“We bust our ass to get our bodies in shape and to look the best we can. We get facials and Botox and our hair done and highlights and brows and lash lifts and all this s**t. But I want to work on the inside. That’s the most important part of the system.”

When she told her son that he could consider therapy if he didn’t feel comfortable speaking about his problems to family or friends, Hilary admits he wasn’t sold at first.

“He was like, ‘I don’t need a therapist!’ I said, ‘No, no, no, I didn’t say you need a therapist. But I love my therapist, and I always feel better when I leave because I can say whatever I want and not feel judged.’ Everybody needs that.”

In the accompanying video interview for WH’s “Body Scan” YouTube series, Hilary says she subscribes to a 70-30 approach, where she makes sure her exercise and eating regime is on-point for 70% of the time, and for the rest, she lives her life for that balance. It’s something she says is important because of the pressures of her career in the public eye.

“Because of my career path, I can’t help but be like, ‘I am on camera and actresses are skinny,’” she tells the magazine, admitting that at the age of 17, she suffered from an eating disorder.  “It was horrifying,” she says of the ordeal.

Her maturity is also one of the reasons, she reveals, why the Lizzie McGuire reboot didn’t get off the ground with Disney +.

“She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things,” Hilary says of her famed character. “She didn’t need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked.”

The June issue of Women’s Health hits the newsstands on May 24.