Hilary Duff responds to Ashley Tisdale-French's 'toxic mom group' essay
Hilary Duff is addressing the "toxic mom group" drama that Ashley Tisdale-French detailed in an essay earlier this year.
In a conversation with Alex Cooper on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, the "luck… or something" singer reacted to Tisdale-French's essay and said she was "pretty taken aback" and "felt sad."
"I was just like, whoa, it sucks to read something that's not true," Duff added.
In Tisdale-French's essay titled, "Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group" for The Cut published Jan. 1, the Disney Channel star known for "High School Musical" and more wrote that she had encountered what she felt was "high school drama" in a mom group she joined after the birth of her first daughter, Jupiter, whom she shares with husband Christopher French.
She detailed how, at first, she was "impressed" by the women and felt "energized" by them, but then she shared how she began to feel "increasingly left out" from the group after she said she was not invited to multiple get-togethers.
Tisdale-French added that she "tried not to take things personally" but began to notice the growing distance from the group when she was invited to a particular gathering where she said she was seated near the host, "at the end of the table, far from the rest of the women."
She said she ended things with the group by texting them, "This is too high school for me and I don't want to take part in it anymore."
While Tisdale-French didn't name the women in the group, she said, "I have never considered the moms to be bad people. (Maybe one.)"
Regarding the speculation around who the moms were in the group, Duff said, "I don't really think people had to connect very many dots."
She added that the essay "came at the craziest time, where I was like, the timing felt not great, and I felt used."
Duff went on and shared that she has "tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids."
"It sucks to read something that's not true, and it sucks on behalf of six women in all of their lives," she said.
In response to the essay, Duff's husband, Matthew Koma, fired back and shared a photo of himself photoshopped onto Tisdale-French's body on his Instagram story. Text on the photo read, "When You're The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers." A sub-headline read, "A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father's Eyes."
Duff said Koma's reaction made her laugh, and she said, "I was like, 'oh my God, oh my God.' But I also don't censor him, and I don't tell him what he can and can't post."
"He is so fierce for me, and I love him for that," she added.
"Good Morning America" has reached out to representatives for Tisdale-French and Duff for comment.
In terms of the women in her life, Duff did mention Meghan Trainor and Mandy Moore in her interview. Duff said Moore has been someone she's run into her whole life, with whom she has become close friends, and she added that Trainor has been someone who has checked up on her amid the rollout for her sixth studio album, which was released last week.
The album, which includes the songs "Roommates," "Mature" and "Weather For Tennis," is produced by Koma. It follows her 2015 record, "Breathe In. Breathe Out."
Duff will embark on "the lucky me tour" on June 22.
