Hilary Duff was unable to touch her feet to the ground for a “solid year” after giving birth to her third child.
The Lizzie McGuire star welcomed her fourth child, a daughter named Townes, in May and has Banks, six, and Mae, three, with husband Matthew Koma, and Luca, 12, with ex Mike Comrie.
And the 37-year-old actress recalls being ill-informed that parenthood would become easier once she had her third child.
She told Us Weekly magazine: “People lied to me and said once you get to three, it’s easy if you get past two to three.
“Three sent me for a loop. I couldn’t touch my feet on the ground for a whole year.”
After several months of dealing with the birth of her four young children, Hilary has learned that it’s impossible to keep everyone happy all the time.
Hilary continued: “After having four children, I realized that I can’t control everyone’s happiness and be the cruise director for everything all the time.
“I’m doing my best, but it was a really nice exercise to just say no a little bit more.”
Hilary noted that the third child, Mae, “has to sort everything out.”
She said: “She’s a wild woman, but she has her own ideas.”
However, this was not enough to stop them from extending their brood.
She said: “And then obviously we liked them so much that we went for number four
“And it felt like there was room, and I’m not sure there is, but we’re figuring it out.”
Hilary also revealed that she sometimes turns to Meta AI to help her when she feels overwhelmed.
She said of the AI-powered personal assistant: “The burden on mothers is huge. I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m like, “Oh, I have these things that I can’t handle and I’m just driving when you shouldn’t be using your phone.” And then of course everything spins. So I’m slowly but surely preparing and I’m definitely excited. I love the holiday season so much, but being an adult now and making it magical for so many people is just so much.
“So I used Meta AI and it was incredible because it’s like a mind partner. It’s just something to throw off your thoughts, and it brings up ideas that maybe seem a little stale to me.”