Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore felt ‘blindsided’ by Ashley Tisdale’s essay
Hilary Duff And Mandy Moore wish that Ashley Tisdale French didn’t make their issues public in her now-viral essay about leaving behind a “toxic” mom group.
“They all feel blindsided and hurt by Ashley speaking out this way,” a source said exclusively We weekly of the circle of friends. “From their perspective, they believed the group was supportive and coming from a good place, and they never thought there was any bad intent behind how things played out.”
The insider notes that the group felt that “issues that could have been handled privately were instead made public, leaving them feeling unfairly portrayed.”
“The mothers insist there was no ‘mean girl’ behavior and say they were genuinely trying to be there for each other during a very vulnerable time in their entire lives,” the source said.
We weekly contacted Duff, Moore and French’s teams for comment.
Although she did not reveal any names, French, 40, made headlines on January 1 with her essay The cutin which she wrote about feeling left out by a group of mothers in California. (The High school musical star shares daughter Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 15 months, with husband Christopher Frans.)
“I remember being left out of a few group conversations, and I knew about it because Instagram made sure I got every photo and Instagram story,” she wrote in the article. “I started to feel left out of the group and noticed that they seemed to exclude me in every way.”
She continued, “I told myself that it was all in my head, and that it wasn’t that big of a deal. And yet I felt a growing distance between me and the other members of the group, who didn’t even seem to care that I wasn’t there much.”
Ashley explained that she was subsequently excluded from another outing and then sent a text claiming that the group felt “too high school” for her, which “didn’t exactly go well.”
Haylie Duff has become embroiled in the drama surrounding Ashley Tisdale French’s essay on ‘toxic’ mother groups. Us Weekly can confirm that Duff, 40, “liked” a joint Instagram post from both French, 40, and The Cut that promoted an essay detailing the High School Musical star’s experience with a group of friends. “LEAVE YOUR TOXIC FRIENDS […]
“Some others tried to smooth things over,” Ashley wrote. “One of them sent flowers and ignored me when I thanked her for them. … To be clear, I never thought of the moms as bad people. (Maybe one.) But I do think our group dynamic was no longer healthy and positive—at least for me.”
As news of the story spread, social media users began speculating that Ashley was referring to her friendships with Duff, 38, Moore, 41, and other celebrities.
Days later, Ashley’s rep denied the rumors. The rep also claimed in a TMZ statement on Monday, January 5, that Ashley was hoping to highlight an issue that other women and mothers might be dealing with.
Duff’s husband Matthew Koma, continued the essay by promoting his own fake article The cut.
“A mother group tells everything through the eyes of a father,” Koma, 38, wrote via his Instagram Story on Tuesday, January 6. “When you’re the most self-obsessed tone-deaf person on the planet, other moms tend to shift the focus to their real toddlers.”
That same day, Ashley’s husband Christopher, 44, shared a seemingly sharply cryptic quote via his Instagram Story, saying: “It’s your choice whether or not you participate.”
