Matthew Koma, in a red baseball hat, with his arm around Hilary Duff in a polka dot dress

Notable People

Hilary Duff Admitted There Wasn’t an ‘Instant Spark’ With Husband Matthew Koma

Hilary Duff and her husband are in the news after a viral essay. Here's how the couple felt about each other when they met.

by Emma McKee

Published on January 9, 2026

3 min read

Hilary Duff said she didn’t feel an immediate connection with her husband

Duff and Koma first met while she was working on her 2015 album Breathe In. Breathe Out. She heard some of his demos and asked to get lunch with him to discuss them.

“Matthew and I [actually] met about six years ago,” she told Vogue. “There wasn’t an instant spark, because I think when you’re walking into a professional meeting, you know nothing about the other person. I didn’t know if he was dating someone…”

It didn’t take long for sparks to fly, though. They realized they connected as they discussed music.

“And then when we started talking about music, things started sparking and he was being funny enough, not flirtatious, but funny enough to where we started creating a banter and a nice friendship right off the bat,” she said.

Hilary Duff and her husband broke up several times before tying the knot

Duff and Koma made their red carpet debut in 2017 and spent Valentine’s Day together in Costa Rica. That same year, they ended their romance, at least briefly. Just months after splitting, they were back together.

“Since Matt got back from tour, they’ve been seeing each other again,” a source said, per People. “Him being gone on tour was the main reason things didn’t work out the first time around so now that he’s back they picked up right where they left off.”

In December 2017, Duff revealed that they were back together for a third time.

“It’s going so great,” she said. “I mean, this is the third time that we’ve dated and I think that what [Selena Gomez] says has so much merit to it. Timing is such a big deal … third time’s a charm!”

She was previously married to Mike Comrie

Before her romance with Koma, Duff was married to NHL player Mike Comrie. They began dating in 2007 and tied the knot in 2010. Five years later, Duff filed for divorce.

“Mike and I were very in love when we met,” she told Cosmopolitan (via Us Weekly). “We both really wanted to get married. I’d been working since the age of 11 or 12, so making that choice at a young age seemed right for me. Maybe it wasn’t, but we spent the majority of our time together really happy.”

While Duff initially believed there was a chance they could reconcile, she eventually realized that ending the marriage was the right move. Still, they remained amicable.

“It wasn’t working well enough to stay together, but there was still a lot of love involved,” she said. “It was just a slow set-in of us not being the match that we used to be. I’m lucky for the person he is and I am and how we decided to handle this.”

Duff admitted that the end of her marriage left her feeling slightly pessimistic about the possibility of long-term love.

“I don’t want to sound bitter because I’m definitely not,” she said. “But I don’t know if people are meant to be together forever. Things happen over a long relationship that you can’t always fight. A marriage of 20 years, the accomplishment of that must feel really great, but there are also huge sacrifices. I just always want to fight for happiness.”