BUZZ
INSIDE: LIFE LESSONS / MONEY
THE
WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY
LI F E L E SS O N S
LIZ HILLIARD The 66-year-old fitness mogul and creator of Hilliard Studio Method on finding true love
RUSTY WILLIAMS
BY EMMA WAY
AS STUDENTS FILE IN for a class at Eastover’s Hilliard Studio Method in early 2019, one of the first things they see is a message in all caps above a wall-sized mirror: “BE POWERFUL.” Then they see a smiling Liz Hilliard— the 66-year-old creator and, with her daughter, Clary, coowner of HSM—as she leads a group of women (many half her age) through one of the city’s toughest workouts and navigates one of the hardest times of her life. In 2018, Liz and her husband, Aubrey Hilliard, separated, and she fell in love with a woman. Lee Kennelly is director of training for HSM, and she, Liz, and Clary had been friends for seven years before she and Liz started a romantic relationship. Rumors swirled and threatened the business Liz and Clary had started in 2008. “I was in a terrible, scary place,” Liz tells me as she sits cross-legged on her living room couch. “But almost every hard thing that’s ever happened in my life has also been the greatest thing that’s ever happened.” Now that their relationship is in the open, Liz is considering writing a book (her second)
Liz Hilliard, shown here in her Myers Park home, started Hilliard Studio Method in 2008. JANUARY 2020 // CHARLOTTE
15
