Mandy Moore has broken her silence on the toxic mum group drama sparked by fellow actress Ashley Tisdale, calling the situation “upsetting”.
In an essay for The Cut in January, Tisdale, 40, made claims the celebrity mum group she was a part of had a toxic environment and left her feeling excluded.
Though she didn’t name the members of the group, fans were quick to point to Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor as some of the other mums involved based on the photos uploaded at the time.
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Moore, 42, has now opened up on a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, where she was asked about her and the mum group’s reaction to the essay.
“It’s wild to have anybody talk about your life, and I know Hilary has sort of mentioned this too,” the This Is Us star explained to Cohen.
“It’s like we both have grown up in this business and had people dissect who we are and the choices we make and all of that, but this was something altogether different and decidedly way more upsetting … it just cuts to the core.
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“I’m someone who is really scared by confrontation but also when it’s important, I am a huge proponent [of] having a conversation if my feelings are hurt or there’s something I need to get off my chest.
“It’s not always like the most comfortable of situations, but I think that’s where I sort of differed in feeling like I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way.”
The Walk to Remember star said she felt the drama insinuated something sinister about mum groups.
“I think the biggest takeaway from that whole ridiculous debacle … is that I feel like it just sort of perpetuates this silly trope that women can’t be supportive of one another and that we’re inherently petty and we’re inherently out to one-up each other, and I have not felt that one iota since becoming a parent,” she said, adding she did not feel this way in the group.
“I’ve actually been so surprised by the meaningful relationships I found with other mums and other parents just in general.
“That has always been my takeaway, and you need that. You need community. You need to find that support wherever you can get it. We need to be able to talk about all of that.”
The High School Musical star rocked the boat earlier this year when she wrote in a now-deleted post to media platform Substack, and later in a separate article with The Cut, that she was “frozen out” of the tight-knit “clique” of fellow celebrity mums.
“Friendships, like all relationships, have seasons. Maybe a group truly was a good fit at one point, but if it’s not the right fit for you now, it’s okay to move on,” the Substack post read.
She went on to delve deeper into the topic, authoring a separate essay for The Cut titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group”.
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Tisdale noted that following the birth of her first daughter, she began craving connection with other mothers. Initially, she believed she had finally fostered the very connection she sought.
High School Musical cast: Then and now
“I thought I found my village. Instead, I was back in high school,” she said.
She began to notice she was being left out of various group activities – but could not escape the Instagram Stories and posts that showed her exactly what she was missing.
After one ill-fated dinner party where she was purposely seated away from the other women, the reality of the situation finally began to sink in.
“I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me,” Tisdale wrote.
She went on to call out the group for their behaviour via text, saying, “‘This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.’”
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