Nearly four years after the death of Aaron Carter, Hilary Duff found a way to bring a piece of their shared childhood back into the limelight.
During her Lucky Me Tour stop in Philadelphia on Sunday night, Duff wore a vintage white T-shirt featuring a young Carter, whose image appeared alongside his name on the front of the tee. The understated tribute came as Duff continues her first major tour in years, giving the moment an added significance to the pair’s roots as two young rising stars who came of age in the early 2000s pop culture world.
Duff and Carter were romantically linked from around 2000 to 2003, during a period when both were on Disney Channel and in the pop music space. Carter was making his mark by releasing hit songs like “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It),” which peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2000. He also made a memorable appearance on Duff’s Lizzie McGuire in 2001.
In the episode “Aaron Carter’s Coming to Town,” Carter plays himself as Lizzie and her friends attempt to get backstage at his concert. The episode concludes with Carter and Duff’s character sharing a kiss, which was an explosive moment that blurred the line between the teen stars’ real-life relationship and their onscreen personas.
More than two decades later, Duff’s Philadelphia tribute was a reminder of just how important Carter was to that period of her life and her career. Following Carter’s death in November 2022, Duff reflected on their relationship in an emotional social media post via Instagram, remembering the “charm” he had and acknowledging how difficult his life had become in the public eye. “Boy, did my teenage self love you deeply,” Duff wrote at the time.
Duff also spoke this year about an unexpected experience that brought Carter back into her life. During an April appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast, she recalled speaking with a psychic who told her that someone named Aaron had emerged during a reading. The psychic eventually identified that Duff and Carter, whom Duff described as her “childhood boyfriend,” were connected.
“It really was a wild experience,” Duff said when speaking about the interaction.
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