Frankie Muniz: Why he revealed Hilary Duff drama 22 years later

Frankie Muniz stands by his decision to open up about his falling out with Hilary Duff.

The “Malcolm in the Middle” alum, 39, exclusively told The Post why he waited 22 years to reveal that the former child stars stopped being friends after they made “Agent Cody Banks” together in 2003.

“I remember doing the interview and leaving and I told my wife [Paige Price], I said, ‘I said stuff I’ve never talked about before,’” Muniz said while promoting his upcoming partnership with Autotrader.

“And she’s like, ‘What?’ [I said], ‘I talked about the Hilary Duff stuff a little bit,’” Muniz added, noting that he “just never talked” about their drama for over two decades.

The “My Dog Skip” star explained that at this point in his life, he wants to tell “the truth.”

“I’m turning 40 next month and I’m like… so many people only see the positive or like the fake side of what people want to see, right?” Muniz said. “Even social media, for the most part, is like your best images. ‘Oh, look where I am,’ even though you probably didn’t even enjoy it. Not saying it’s fake, but like… it’s the best of everything that went on.”

“I’m so used to just avoiding certain topics or avoiding conflict or whatever it is,” he continued. “And not that I think I was going to get conflict from it. It’s just the truth. I’m at the age in my life where I just speak the truth. You know, if it is good, great. If it’s bad, it’s the truth.”

Muniz went on, “I’ve been a little more open in some of those podcasts, like, long-form interviews about certain things. People are interested to hear it. Whether they agree with what I said or not, don’t care. It’s just the facts.”

The “Big Fat Liar” star reiterated that he hasn’t talked to Duff, 38, since the last day of filming “Agent Cody Banks.”

“We were best friends from 12, 13 years old until then,” he said.

“I just was my experience, you know what I mean,” Muniz added of sharing his story about Duff. “Not that it was bad, you know.”

Muniz and Duff met as teens when their careers kicked off around the same time. Duff starred in “Lizzie McGuire” starting in 2001, while Muniz’s “Malcom in the Middle” debuted in 2002.

But as Muniz revealed on “The Joe Vulpis Podcast” last month, the former besties had a falling out because of Duff’s mom Susan’s behavior during the casting of “Agent Cody Banks.”

“I was on the set of ‘Lizzie McGuire,’ and I was in Hilary’s dressing room and her mom was there,” Muniz recalled. “Her mom was like, ‘Do you know what you’re doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?’ And I go, ‘Oh, I’m filming this movie where I’m playing like a junior James Bond.’”

Muniz claimed that Duff’s mom asked whether the film had a female lead. By the next morning, Duff was cast in the role — despite Muniz wanting “Smallville” star Kristin Kreuk to play his onscreen love interest.

“Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about it. And not because I didn’t want it to be Hilary,” he recalled.

Muniz said he and Duff stopped talking after finishing the movie, but suggested he might finally reach out to the “Younger” actress.

“I regret not just continuing to be friends with her because we had a great friendship for such a long time, and I let her mom… it pissed me off,” he said.