I love a wife guy — a man who is just so supportive of his wife’s passions and success. And I think it’s safe to say that Hilary Duff is married to a total Jewish wife guy. Music producer and singer-songwriter Matthew Koma (born Matthew Bair) is clearly her biggest fan, with his own social media feed full of adoring and funny posts about the “So Yesterday” singer.
Koma, known for collaborating with artists like Zedd and Bruce Springsteen, and Duff have been together since 2017. The two first met when he was working for the “Lizzie McGuire” star’s music label, and they dated on and off for a while.
They welcomed their first child, daughter Banks Violet, in 2018. The next year, two were married in an intimate, beautiful ceremony in their backyard, organized by event planner to the stars, Yifat Oren of Oren Co. They’ve since welcomed two more kids — daughters Mae James and Townes Meadow — and Koma also helps raise Duff’s son from her first marriage, Luca.
A couple years ago on the Good Guys podcast, Duff shared that they “don’t celebrate any of the holidays… I still have to walk over to my neighbor’s house to celebrate any of the fun holidays with all the food dishes.”
The two may not celebrate Jewish holidays together, but they also don’t pass up an opportunity to enjoy Jewish food. Koma introduced Duff to the joys of Russ & Daughters’ white fish salad, and the two used to have a weekly date night at the Jewish appetizing establishment over smoked fish sandwiches and drinks.
Koma has found other ways to share Jewish pride and fight antisemitism. When Kanye West advertised his swastika shirts during the Super Bowl last year, the producer decided to sell “Fuck Ye” shirts to raise money for Holocaust survivors.
Now, Koma and Duff are collaborating on a very exciting project. Koma helped produce and write songs on Duff’s new album, “luck… or something,” the singer’s first album in over a decade. It’s extremely personal, with songs about the singer’s estrangement from her sister and her strained relationship with her father. Duff has shared that working with her husband on the album has helped her feel comfortable and safe enough to come back to music and be so vulnerable.
“There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than your wife saying I want to write songs [together]. You really want to get it right, you really want to make sure that you support her the right way and give her a safe space to do that,” Koma shared in a CBS interview. “I think for her it was just a lot of listening on my part, and figuring out where do you want this to live and how honest do you want to be… Just walking that balance of how you frame that publicly.”
Koma is also known for fiercely standing up for his wife. When a recent piece by actress Ashley Tisdale about her “toxic” moms’ group was revealed to be one that included Duff, he shared a scathing Instagram post about it. Duff recently talked about her reaction to the post — which she had no idea he was going to share.
“Everything he does makes me laugh,” Duff shared on a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, “so I was like ‘oh my God,’ but I also don’t censor him, and I don’t tell him what he can or can’t post. He is so fierce for me, and I love him for that.”
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