Hilary Duff Caught With Cigarette, New Mom Explains Herself To Fans

By Cavan Sieczkowski | June 19 2012 8:45 AM

Hilary Duff's squeaky clean image has not left her. From her days as Disney star Lizzie McGuire to her charity efforts to her role as a new mama, Duff has maintained a flawless image. Until she was caught holding a lit cigarette.

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Hilary Duff's squeaky clean image has not left her. From her days as Disney star "Lizzie McGuire" to her charity efforts to her role as a new mama, Duff has maintained a flawless image. Until she was caught holding a lit cigarette.

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Duff was photographed holding a lit cigarette outside Rock N Reilly's Irish Pub in West Hollywood on Friday while out with husband Mike Comrie and friends. The photo spread like wild fire on the internet, with fans upset that the 24-year-old blonde presumably started smoking.

PLEASE STOP HILARY!! We love you and all, but you just created your amazing, perfect, and adorable family. There's really no need to add cigarettes into the equation, wrote MTV contributor Jenna Hally Rubenstein.

This photo of Hilary Duff holding a cigarette outside Rock N Reilly's Irish Pub in L.A makes me want to cry, wrote Jenni Maier, editor-in-chief, of Crushable. Yes, it makes me want to crawl into a crib with her new adorable baby son Luca and just cry.

It's just so upsetting. You think you know someone. You think you devote a large part of your middle school years watching their TV show. And then they go and do this. Smoke a cigarette despite the dangers third-hand smoke poses to a baby.

The actress recently told Us Weekly that she would not do anything drastic in an attempt to lose the baby weight, but some questioned if that lit cigarette had something to do with a weight loss strategy.

Some Hollywood mothers, like Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba, are commended for how they present themselves in front of the camera for fans and for the world. Other mothers like Katherine Heigl and Kate Moss have been criticized for smoking in front of their children (though Heigl has reportedly begun smoking electronic cigarettes in attempt to break the nasty habit).

Duff quickly took to Twitter to explain herself to all those concerned fans.

Yikes me holding a cigarette for my friend might have been a bad idea! pretty bummed about the photo.. Sorry guys, looks worst than it is!

— Hilary Duff (@HilaryDuff) June 18, 2012

Hillary (sic) Duff: 'holding a #cigarette for my friend might have been a bad idea!' You're right, tweeted Tobacco Prevention, a state funded program to prepare educators to teach students tobacco prevention and intervention, based in Florida.

Alas, apparently it all turned out to be one big misunderstanding. Simply a misinterpreted photograph that alarmed fans.

Phew! That was a close one.