“You’re allowed to leave your mom group,” says Ashley Tisdale — even if that mom group may or may not include some beloved celebrity moms.
The High School Musical has fans pointing fingers after a series of posts on TikTok and her blog about a “toxic” mom group that she walked away from.
In a post on her By Ashley French blog, Tisdale wrote that she “craved connection” after welcoming her first daughter, Jupiter, in 2021 and decided to join a mom group. At first, the group was the “village of moms” that she needed. Everyone was sharing “sleep training advice,” taking “tons of photos,” and celebrating “the tiny victories” of motherhood.
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However, the 40-year-old, who also shares 1-year-old daughter Emerson with husband Christopher French, says her group soon turned toxic. “Not because the moms themselves are toxic people, but because the dynamic shifts into an ugly place with mean-girl behavior,” she wrote.
“In my mom group, I started to notice that certain people would get talked about when they weren’t present, and not in a positive way. I realized that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group.”
Soon, Tisdale says, she started to be excluded. “And after the third or fourth time of seeing social media photos of everyone else at a hangout that I didn’t get invited to, it felt like I wasn’t really part of the group after all,” she wrote, adding that she stopped showing up to group hangs.
“If a mom group consistently leaves you feeling hurt, drained, or left out, it’s not the mom group for you,” the actress wrote. “It’s no longer serving you in a way that lifts you up, and you don’t have to stay out of obligation or anything else.”
So, who is in this toxic mom group, you might ask?
When Tisdale promoted the blog post on TikTok, fans were quick to point out her ties to a close-knit celebrity crew that includes Meghan Trainor, Hilary Duff, and Mandy Moore.
In 2021, Duff posted a photo on her Instagram Story showing her then-3-month-old daughter, Mae, lying with a group of babies that included Moore’s son, August, Trainor’s firstborn boy, Riley, and Tisdale’s daughter, Jupiter. The Lizzie McGuire alum tagged her fellow celebrity moms in the post.
The following year, Tisdale posted photos from a weekend getaway with Duff, Moore and Trainor as well as some other California moms. “Moms weekend away! I love being surrounded by these ladies. What an amazing group of women to journey through this mom-hood together! So grateful for this trip ❤️” Tisdale captioned the now-deleted post, per Scary Mommy.
Tisdale and the ladies regularly interacted with one another on social media and spoke openly about leaning on one another for support. “It was actually one of the hardest moments of my life,” Duff told People in December 2024 about how the women helped her during her family’s bout of the flu, “and I was on the chat thread just ranting and raving, and they’re all just really supportive.”
However, in recent months, Tisdale’s involvement seems to have tapered off. Moore and Duff joined a group of moms for an October getaway, but Tisdale did not appear to be involved. Could this be the “toxic” group Tisdale is referring to?
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