Actress and singer Mandy Moore has finally broken her silence on that bonkers essay her former mum group friend Ashley Tisdale French wrote for The Cut earlier this year.
In the essay, Tisdale French explained that after becoming a mum, she found herself unexpectedly caught up in cliquey social dynamics that made her feel like she was back in high school. She wrote about being excluded from gatherings and struggling with the emotional fallout of feeling left out by women she considered friends.
The piece quickly sparked online speculation, largely because paparazzi photos and social media snaps had previously shown Tisdale French hanging out with a tight-knit celebrity mum circle that appeared to include Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor (who apparently received a text from Tisdale French saying the essay wasn’t about her).
Now, Moore has addressed the essay publicly, reflecting on the virality of the whole thing and the pressures that can come with adult friendships, especially in parenting circles that play out online as much as they do in real life.
While she didn’t dive deeply into the speculation surrounding the group itself, her comments acknowledged how relatable the experience can be, even far outside Hollywood. Because apparently, no matter how famous you are, mum group politics can still feel painfully Year 10-coded.
“It’s wild to have anybody talk about your life and I know Hilary has sort of mentioned this too,” Moore told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live. “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… just cuts to the core.
“I think the most important thing in my life is being a kind person and that legacy of kindness and anyone even insinuating that that might not be the case and with the company that I choose to keep is very upsetting. So I’d say that was the biggest takeaway was sort of the shock of like, ‘Wow’.”
Catch the full interview below:
Moore shares three children with husband Taylor Goldsmith: Gus, five; Ozzie, three; and Lou, one.
Prior to now, her commentary on the subject had been rather low-key, including praising Duff’s husband Matthew Koma, who famously dragged Tisdale French on social media as the whole thing was kicking off online.
“[Koma] happens to be one of the most talented and generous humans I’m lucky to know,” Moore wrote on her Instagram Stories, just hours after he shared the post mocking Tisdale.
This response was much more robust, mirroring Duff’s discussion of the matter on Call Her Daddy.
The post Mandy Moore Finally Weighs In On Ashley Tisdale’s ‘Toxic’ Mum Group Essay: ‘Cuts To The Core’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
