NEWSHilary Duff Horrified After Audience Doesn't Know Her Celebrity Crush
Hilary Duff name-dropped crushes Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Zac Hanson on 'The Jennifer Hudson Show' that aired Wednesday, May 20.
May 25 2026, Published 8:33 a.m. ET
Talk about feeling old!
Millennials are sighing as Hilary Duff revealed her shock that an entire studio audience didn't recognize the name of her celebrity crush, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, affectionately known as "JTT."
“Do you remember JTT?” the Lizzie McGuire star, 38, asked a fan who inquired about her childhood crush on The Jennifer Hudson Show episode that aired Wednesday, May 20.
The fan responded, "I don't know who that is."
Hilary Duff Explained the Relevance of Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Hilary Duff was surprised that the audience had no recollection of Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
“Look, you’re too young, you’re too young,” she said, then asked the crowd, “Please raise your hand if you know who I’m talking about.”
Shocked, Duff said, "It’s not even half."
She schooled the audience.
"OK guys, he was on Home Improvement," she said. "Cute Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He was also in The Lion King. He was a kid. He was the voice of Simba, right?"
Duff also called out pop rock band Hanson's "little one," Zac Hanson, as another celebrity crush.
Who is Jonathan Taylor Thomas?
'Home Improvement' star Jonathan Taylor Thomas was a major teen idol in the 1990s.
The former teen idol, now 44, adorned many a fans' walls when he appeared alongside his TV brothers played by Taran Noah Smith and Zachery Ty Bryan and their TV parents Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson on the family sitcom that aired from 1991-1999 on ABC.
After Home Improvement wrapped, Thomas went to college, attending Harvard, Columbia and St. Andrew's University in Scotland.
He studied history and philosophy, graduating from Columbia in 2010.
“I'd been going nonstop since I was 8 years old," he told People in a 2013 interview. "I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.”
He continued, "I never took the fame too seriously. It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me.”
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Where Is Jonathan Taylor Thomas Now?
He attended college at Harvard, Columbia and St. Andrew's University.
The last time Thomas emerged publicly was in December 2023, when he was spotted for the first time in two years at a convenience store in Southern California.
Before that, he was snapped walking his dogs in L.A. in July 2021.
And before that, he hadn't been seen in public in eight years.
Hilary Duff Moved On
Hilary Duff shares three daughters with her husband, Matthew Koma, and co-parents her son with ex Mike Comrie.
Although Duff still may dream of Thomas, she’s been happily married to Matthew Koma, 38, since 2019. Together, the couple shares daughters Banks, 7, Mae, 5, and Townes, 2. The A Cinderella Story star is also a mom to her and ex-husband Mike Comrie's son Luca, 14. The exes were married to from 2010-2016.
“There’s this thing we do on the weekends that makes the kids crazy, where we just start singing, ‘it’s the mandatory family walk, mandatory family walk, mandatory family walk,’” Duff said on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “And everybody has to get their shoes on and get a leash and take a dog and go on a walk with us. It’s so cute, but the kids never want to do it. They’re, like, hiding, but then we always have amazing chats and family time.”
She continued, “Townes is the baby, so she always collects leaves and rocks and sticks them in her shirt. I find them all the time in the washing machine.”
