Hilary Duff Paid Tribute To Aaron Carter In The Subtlest Way

Hilary Duff is keeping her first love close to her heart. On Aug. 9, the singer paid tribute to the late Aaron Carter, her teenage ex-boyfriend, with a subtle but sweet gesture during the Philadelphia stop on her whirlwind Lucky Me Tour.

Every night on tour, Duff has worn a different oversized vintage T-shirt, ranging from artists like Britney Spears and Hannah Montana to beloved franchises like McDonald’s and the New York Knicks. Last night, she repped Carter, donning a throwback tee featuring his younger self in jean overalls.

Duff dated Carter on-and-off for three years in the early 2000s, when they were teenagers, after he guest-starred on her breakout Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. Their romance was both adorable and culturally iconic, creating a love triangle with Lindsay Lohan and a subsequent feud that was squashed years later.

While the two didn’t stay close following their split, Duff remained friends with his family and wrote a sentimental tribute on Instagram after his death in 2022. “For Aaron- I’m deeply sorry that life was so hard for you and that you had to struggle in-front of the whole world,” she wrote. “You had a charm that was absolutely effervescent… boy did my teenage self love you deeply.”

Nonetheless, Duff says their connection was so deep that Carter once visited her through a psychic during a phone call. “She’s like, ‘Well, people are going to start showing up to speak with you, and there’s someone here, Aaron with two A’s,’” Duff recalled on the April 1 episode of the Las Culturistas podcast. “I was like, ‘Is it Aaron Carter?’ She was, like, ‘Sure is. What the hell is he doing here?’”

Although the caller’s identity is supposed to be anonymous, this is how the psychic figured who she was. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s my childhood boyfriend. And, you know, that would make sense to me.’ And, she’s like, ‘Are you Hilary Duff?’” she said, calling it a “really wild experience.”