In 2004, reports emerged that
Avril Lavigne and Duff were having a spat. "I read that I was supposedly mad at my fans for dressing like me",
Newsweek quoted Lavigne as saying. "They quoted Hilary Duff saying, 'Avril needs to appreciate her fans more and blah, blah, blah.' I'm like, excuse me? First off, it's not even true. I never said that. And second, who the hell cares what she has to say about my fans? Whatever. Hilary Duff's such a goody-goody, such a mommy's girl". Recently, there were reports of drama between the two at a
Maxim party in New York. Evidently, a complication in the arrival time of both, caused an unwanted run-in. Lavigne was said to be furious at this, pacing around and pressuring her company to leave.
[51]In June 2006, when asked about her then-boyfriend Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden, a native of
Waldorf, Maryland, in an interview with
Elle Magazine, Duff replied, "He's very real, like, he's from a pretty ghetto place in Maryland... I like that". Duff's "ghetto" comments sparked a mixture of mild offense and bemusement from residents of the Waldorf area, as the suburban, mostly middle-class town did not fall into the traditional impoverished
inner city concept of a
ghetto.
[52] Duff later claimed she was referring not to Waldorf, but actually a section of
Baltimore where Madden lived briefly as a young adult.
[53]In late 2006, Duff took legal action against an alleged stalker and his roommate.
[54] On
November 3,
2006, Duff's stalker, Maksim Miakovsky, was arrested for threatening to kill her. He was booked on charges of making criminal threats and stalking. According to legal papers filed by Duff, Miakovsky came to the U.S. "for the sole purpose of meeting and becoming romantically involved with Ms. Duff". Miakovsky is being held on $200,000 bail at the Manhattan Beach jail. He was arraigned on
November 7,
2006.
[55] On
January 19,
2007, Miakovsky was sentenced to 117 days in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to the charges.
[56]In August 2005, Duff said she received
veneers because she chipped off one of her front teeth on a microphone during a concert.
[57] She subsequently had her veneers redone to match the size of her original teeth.
[58][59] By 2005, Duff appeared to have lost weight, leading the media to speculate that she had developed an
eating disorder, although Duff denied this claim.
[60] Duff was interviewed on the Australian current affair show
Today Tonight and stated that she lost weight by leading a more active lifestyle. Later, an article on
Digital Spy in 2006, stated that Duff slimmed down to a U.S.
size zero because of media reports suggesting she had gained fifteen pounds.
[61] She said she has been feeling pressure to be thin, stating that she is perceived in the media to be either too fat or too thin. Duff called this "judgmental" and "mean".
[62]
