In order: Avril Lavigne (above), Kate Walsh, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, Haylie and Hilary Duff, Kim Kardashian & Sophia Bush

Just weeks after Joel Madden and Hilary Duff, 19, broke up last November, the Good Charlotte frontman began dating famously skinny Nicole Richie. Then the Material Girls actress had to watch as the romance blossomed on the pages of celebrity magazines.

In the May issue of CosmoGIRL, Duff opens up about her struggles with her weight, her newfound confidence, and what it was like creating her new album, Dignity, while working through the heartbreak. Interview highlights below:

On her breakup with Joel:
“Joel 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. We e-mail all the time now and are at a really good place.”

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.’”

On her new album, Dignity:
“It’s interesting — half the record was written when I was in a relationship 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?”

Source

They famously feuded over singer Aaron Carter, 19, (who dated them both), but Lindsay Lohan, 20, and Hilary Duff, 19, put it all behind them at Hollywood club Les Deux on March 30. Lohan hugged Duff and partied by her side.

So where did the bad blood begin?

In 2005, Carter appeared on the talk show The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch and told the host, “I started dating Hilary on my 13th birthday… I was dating her for like a year-and-a-half and then I just got a little bored so I went and I started getting to know Lindsay, dating Lindsay.”

But as the girls were getting reacquainted last weekend, they found someone else to scorn.

A source tells Us Weekly, “They were making fun of Paris!”

Lohan even danced on a couch spoofing Hilton when one of her tunes played!

Not likin the outfit.

Speaking of Hilary, Joel Madden opens up about their split for the first time.

Though Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden and Hilary Duff split last November, the tattooed rocker hasn’t spoken a word publicly about the breakup – until now.

“I kind of ignored it and tried to just continue to live my life,” Madden, 28, tells PEOPLE. “People can say or think whatever they want …so in my reality, it’s kind of irrelevant. I’m always the kind of person that does the right thing and keeps my side of the street clean.”

He also confirms what Duff, 19, recently told PEOPLE about how she and Madden keep in touch and have a “great relationship.”

“Every girl I’ve ever dated I have respect for, and I always try to leave them in good terms,” says Madden. “I don’t see the necessity to be friends with anyone you’ve dated but definitely out of respect of the time, you have to be kind of respectful and that’s what I try to do.”

Since then, he’s been dating Nicole Richie, 25.

“I don’t really talk about her at all but I will say I am really happy and everything’s really good for me right now,” Madden says.

It’s not just his new relationship that’s got him smiling. With a new album, Good Morning Revival, coming out March 27, Madden has been having fun traveling with his brother and fellow band member, Benji.

“He’s my best friend, so I love spending time with him,” says Madden. “It’s [also nice] having someone on your team, because the world has a very different perception of you than the person you really are.”

In that regard, he says, “I’m just a really normal, sensitive kind of go-about-my business everyday kinda guy. People see the tattoos, and they either read things or they see things and they don’t really know that I’m just this guy that gets up and makes coffee in the morning and hangs out with his friends and walks his dog and reads his Bible and goes about his day. I’m not perfect obviously, but I’m just a normal – like any other dude that’s 28 and just living his life.”

This life includes something else that’s perfectly normal, he says: messing up.

“My goal in life is to do the right thing and learn from my mistakes. I feel so bad for someone like Britney Spears who’s not allowed to make normal mistakes we all make,” he says. “I’ve had plenty of times on tour or somewhere where I freaked out and went crazy and did things when I was right around her age.”

As he sees it, “Mistakes aren’t bad, and I’ve made plenty of them – but I’m always trying to be a better person.”

***SORRY GUYS, HAD TO TAKE DOWN THE PICS!***

I think she looks great!