Hilary Duff Confronts Paparazzo Taking Photos of Children

Hilary Duff has made it clear she is not OK with paparazzi invading her personal space — and that goes double when her kids are involved.

On Saturday, February 22, the Lizzie McGuire star posted a video of herself confronting a paparazzo who was seemingly photographing children on a football field. “Do you know any people on the team? Can you stop taking pictures of the kids please?” Hilary can be heard asking in the clip. In turn, the photographer pushes back by saying what he was doing was “legal.” When Hilary offers that she is uncomfortable by him photographing children, the paparazzo asks if she wants to see his ID.

“I'm not asking for your ID,” Hilary says in response. “I'm asking you to stop taking pictures of our 7-year-old children if you don't know anyone that's here. I'm asking you human-to-human — as a mother — if you don't know anyone here, can you please stop taking pictures of our children playing football this morning?” The photographer can be seen responding: “I'm taking pictures, I'm practicing photography,” adding: “Your paranoia is unwarranted.”

The video ends after the photographer puts his hand over Hilary’s phone, but not before the actor pans the camera to show all the other parents sitting on the sideline. “Paparazzi shooting KIDS,” Hilary wrote in the caption on Instagram. “Go ‘practice’ your photography on ADULTS! Creep! Laws need to change! This is stalking minors! Disgusting!” At the time of writing, the photographer has not commented on the incident.

From the comments, it’s clear that many people — including a lot of celebs — were ready to support Hilary for confronting the photographer. “Children should be protected under the law. 👏” wrote Emmy Rossum, while Katie Stephens added several clapping emojis. “This is beyond unacceptable and I stand behind you with an army of Mothers who applaud you for refusing to back down in an instance where yet again, a paparazzi is stating his right to photograph minors,” commented Nikki Reed, adding: “The bottom line is this industry should not be allowed to make money off of children. Period end of story. Not only is that morally wrong, but more importantly, in the process of making money off of little kid’s private moments, these children grow up feeling unsafe.”

Hilary is a mother to two children: Luca, age 7, and Banks, who is 1. She has previously spoken out about photographers invading her children's privacy; in December 2019, she took to Instagram to detail how she was followed while running errands with her kids. “Here I am just trying to get around with both my kids and I have paparazzi following me everywhere I go,” she wrote at the time, per Entertainment Tonight. “Two grown men, three actually, one's running away across the street, just following me and my kids to every location I go to…. In a world where women are getting all these rights, this doesn't seem right to me at all.”

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue