What’s Going On With Ashley Tisdale’s ‘Toxic Mom Group’?

Ashley Tisdale doesn’t want to be a part of a so-called “toxic mom group” anymore. Or rather, she does want to be a part of the group but doesn’t want it to be toxic anymore. Maybe.

Last week, the former High School Musical star wrote a personal essay for The Cut, entitled ‘Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group’ detailing her experience in the aforementioned Hollywood mom group.

The group is made up of other well known celeb mothers including Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, and Meghan Trainor. It’s a space for chatting about motherhood, connecting with those who had children during the pandemic, and of course, organising “hangs.”

“Hangs” that Tisdale has been apparently left out of, on multiple occasions, leading to her decision to write a personal essay about the issue – an exposé, if you will.

The article was received, well… not amazingly well. Not only did readers find the piece tone deaf and kind of irrelevant, but Duff’s partner Matthew Koma also took it upon himself to parody the piece with the headline ‘When You’re The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers’.

Yes, really.

In the article, Tisdale details her experience with the group: how she joined during lockdown, and how she felt “lucky” to be in touch with so many new mothers.

“My friend’s friends were in the same situation as I was,” she wrote. “Most of us had been pregnant through the early pandemic, so we missed out on the activities where you meet other expectant mothers. But finally, we were able to be together, and our kids were able to be together, and it all felt right.”

As time went on, however, Tisdale’s adoration of the group waned. She was being left out of several group “hangs.” She was ignored in the chat. She saw the group dynamic as “toxic,” in particular “one mom”, who she now considers a bad person (and considering Koma’s post, it’s looking ever more likely that this mom in question is Duff).

Tisdale’s blog post from last month delved a little deeper into the dynamics of the group, which she describes as “an ugly place with mean girl behaviour, with mums talking derogatorily about other mums when they weren’t there.”

 

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Eventually, Ashley decided that she wanted to leave the group – and stand up for herself, as per her values. “It’s because I’m a mum that I couldn’t stay quiet,” she said. “I kept thinking, aren’t we supposed to be teaching our kids to speak up for themselves when their feelings are hurt?”

But apparently, it’s actually Tisdale’s values which have isolated her from the wider group. According to The Sun, Duff wasn’t overly impressed with Ashley’s response to the LA wildfires – in that there wasn’t one.

“She didn’t offer to help with the means she has. She just lived her own life, didn’t check in to see how they were doing, and her friends felt abandoned by her,” the source said.

Tisdale later shared her distress following the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a right wing creator who was known for sharing racist and homophobic rhetoric. The source continued, “Her politics don’t align with a lot of the group members, which drove a wedge between them.”