Hilary Duff explains why she skipped the bikini for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2026 cover

Full coverage suited Hilary Duff just fine.

The singer, 38, had one stipulation for her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2026 cover shoot: no bikinis.

On Thursday’s episode of “Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce,” Duff recalled her early conversations with the magazine’s team. “It was great to have conversations with them and be like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to wear a bikini,’” she said. “Like, I have had four kids. I feel comfortable showing this. I don’t feel comfortable showing this. And they’re like, ‘Got it. Got it. Got it.’”

Duff also shared her unfiltered first reaction to landing the cover, which she found out about while driving to pick up her kids from school.

“My first reaction was like, ‘S–t. I thought I’d get in, like, rip-roaring shape,” she told Kelce, a fellow mom of four. “And I’m also like, I’m not a model. I’m 5’2. I’ve had four kids.”

What put her at ease was the team behind the camera. Duff said the shoot was largely female-led, and she was able to bring her own glam squad, including makeup artist Kelsey Deenihan, who used Charlotte Tilbury products to create a sun-kissed glow.

“The editor-in-chief is incredible. The photographer was who I wanted. It got to be my whole styling team, my hair and makeup,” she said. “They wanted me to feel my best.”

Duff, who posed in a plunging white one-piece Oye swimsuit for photographer Kat Irlin in South Caicos, flew in for just one day — the night of the Super Bowl — and described the whirlwind shoot on a remote sandbar as freeing.

“My body’s worked really hard for me and produced an entire family,” she said, adding that with each pregnancy, she’s found “a little bit more ease” around the feelings that come with her body changing.

It wasn’t her first time pushing past her comfort zone on camera; in 2022, the “Younger” alum posed for Women’s Health wearing nothing but her tattoos and admitted it was “pretty scary.”

She’s since welcomed a fourth child, daughter Townes, in 2024 with husband Matthew Koma.

Duff shares the 2026 cover with Alix Earle, Tiffany Haddish and Nicole Williams English.

Her SI debut is the latest milestone in a blockbuster year; the former Disney Channel star released her sixth studio album, “Luck … Or Something,” in January — her first in over a decade — and kicks off a world tour next month.