The Making of the 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue in South Caicos With Hilary Duff

“ Early 2000s Hilary would be like, ‘You are wild and so risqué,’” Hilary Duff quipped while on the set of her 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue cover in South Caicos. The 38-year-old musician, actor and all around icon was photographed by Kat Irlin for her moment in the spotlight, and the opportunity was an incredibly meaningful one for Duff.

When she was first approached to pose for this year’s magazine, Duff was surprised—and as a Libra, she had to take stock of her feelings and ask plenty of questions before saying “yes.” But from her fitting in her bathroom at home to stepping on set in South Caicos, everything aligned magically.

“Getting to come to South Caicos and roll around on the beach with everybody making me look beautiful and taking gorgeous photos is such a fun experience and a great marker of time for my life,” Duff explained. “I love this age that I’m at. Being 38, like, I’m going to look back and be like, ‘That’s crazy. I’m so happy to have it documented.”

Hilary Duff was photographed by Kat Irlin in South Caicos. Swimsuit by Vitamin A. | Kat Irlin/Sports Illustrated

She added, “Everything that people say about aging is true. You start to, like, feel better and better as you go. And I’m trying to keep reminding myself that instead of critiquing, celebrate.”

On the morning of Duff’s shoot, the team captured photos on the beach before moving to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean for the afternoon. “ We’re in heaven ... you can't beat it,” SI Swimsuit editor in chief MJ Day shared while on set. “You can’t find a more private, more pristine, more beautiful spot than where we are right now.”

Duff, who sent plenty of “sneaky’ videos to her husband, musician Matthew Koma, while on location, predicted that her daughters, Banks, Mae and Townes, would hype up her swimsuit photos, while she joked she planned to “act like [the shoot] never happened” with her son, Luca. Overall, her time on set with the SI Swimsuit team in South Caicos was a blast, and resulted in some truly spectacular imagery.

“ This was definitely, like, a safe environment and felt really fun, but it was, like, a complete honor to be asked to do something like this,” Duff stated. “I think if I was telling, like, early 2000s Hilary, I would be like, ‘Just stop worrying so much about what other people think. You’re gonna be good, girl. Don't worry about it.’”

View Duff’s full 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue photo gallery here.