Hilary Duff On Music, Joel Madden and Being Too Thin

Just weeks after Joel Madden and Hilary Duff broke up last November, the Good Charlotte frontman began dating skinny socialite (and part time druggie) Nicole Richie.

Still reeling from the difficult breakup, the Material Girls actress, 19, had to watch as the romance blossomed on the celebrity gossip magazines (and websites).

And there's also the fact that Hilary Duff had a stalker.

In the May issue of Cosmo Girl, Hilary Duff opens up about her struggles with her weight, her newfound self-confidence, and what it was like creating her new album, Dignity, while working through the heartbreak. 

She does not, however, address rumors that she's with Stavros Niarchos. Oh well. We'll figure that out in time. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

On her breakup with Joel Madden:
"(Joel Madden) was my boyfriend for two years and I loved him - he was a very important part of my life. All that stuff about the age difference between us being the reason we broke up is just not true; I never felt the age difference. Breaking up was just something that I felt needed to happen between us. People thought we were an unlikely couple, but we really weren't that different. After two months, I didn't even see his tattoos anymore, because that's not who he is. He used to say, 'I don't think there are too many people out there who really get you, but I do.' And he did. I could be stupid, silly, funny, or crazy, and he got it. He gave me a sense of confidence and independence I didn't have before. For a time it was awkward, but we e-mail all the time now and are at a really good place."

THG NOTE: Not quite the same place that Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler are all of a sudden back at. But friendship is a good thing too.

On getting slim:
"I have the same insecurities about my body that every girl has and I made a conscious choice to get in shape. I've always been a junk food eater, but I started paying more attention to what I put in my body and cut out foods like pizza, chicken fingers, and French fries. If I knew I'd want dessert one night, I wouldn't have bread that day. If I wanted to eat bread, I wouldn't have dessert. Seeing how well it worked motivated me to keep going, but I hit a period when I got too skinny. I wasn't too obsessed with it, but I did learn that there have to be days when you just don't think about it."

THG NOTE: For Britney Spears, that's every day. But who's counting.

On her new album, Dignity:
"It's interesting - half the record was written when I was with Joel, and the other half was written after we'd broken up. So together, the album is just really personal. So many of the songs are about things my family has gone through. I was scared to write about that stuff at first, but then I thought, Why try to make it seem like I have a perfect life when I don't?"