Ashley Tisdale has shared a cryptic message about strength after receiving negative reactions to her “toxic” mom group essay.
The 40-year-old mother of two recently wrote an essay for The Cut about breaking up with her friend group of fellow moms due to their “high school” behavior. While Tisdale has not named the members of the group, she was previously part of a high-profile circle of Los Angeles-based moms, including Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, and Meghan Trainor.
After Tisdale’s essay raised eyebrows — with Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, even mocking its cover — she shared a video on Instagram Friday of herself doing a yoga pose in front of a desert landscape.
The text over the clip, which features soothing music in the background, reads: “Find your strength within. Coming February 1.”
The former Disney Channel star tagged her wellness brand, Being Frenshe, in the post.
The post comes as Tisdale faces backlash about her viral essay. In his response to the piece, Koma posted a fake magazine cover of himself, with the headline: “A mom group tell all through a father’s eyes: When You’re the Most Self-Obsessed Tone Deaf Person on Earth, Other Moms Tend to Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.”
Meanwhile, Today host Jenna Bush Hager questioned Tisdale for addressing the mom group drama in such a “public” way, rather than having conversations with her friends privately.
“Feeling left out is public because of social media, but also the fact that she wrote an article and made it public, I don’t know. Good for her for telling her truth,” she said.
“But I also think private conversations are more and more important. Speaking your truth to the people who have hurt you should be enough. I hope we can also teach that if you feel wronged, if you feel hurt, show love.”
Tisdale is the mother of two daughters, Jupiter, four, and Emerson, 15 months, whom she shares with her husband, Christopher French. In her essay for The Cut, she recalled finding her “village” in a friend group of fellow moms, whom she connected with during the pandemic. However, she claimed the dynamic took a turn when she was “frozen out of the group” and “excluded.” She accused her friends of high school-style behavior, which prompted her to leave the group
“I remember being left out of a couple of group hangs, and I knew about them because Instagram made sure it fed me every single photo and Instagram Story,” she wrote.
Moore spoke about the mom group in a 2022 interview with InStyle, saying: “And so, we had babies at the same time and [Duff], being the super-mom that she is, formed a cool mom club.”
However, a representative for Tisdale told TMZ on Monday that her essay was not about her friendship with Moore, Duff, and Trainor, stating that Tisdale’s essay aimed to highlight issues mothers face, based on her personal experience with a different group of friends.
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