Mandy Moore lays into Ashley Tisdale over 'upsetting' essay about 'toxic' mom group

Mandy Moore set her sights on her former mom group compatriot, Ashley Tisdale French, in a new interview.

During a conversation with Andy Cohen on Monday for SiriusXM's Radio Andy, Moore, 42, admitted that she found Tisdale French's essay about the 'toxic' mom group that had allegedly given her the cold shoulder to be 'very upsetting.'

'It's wild to have anybody talk about your life, and I know Hilary [Duff] has sort of mentioned this too,' Moore said, referencing one of the other celebrity mothers who are believed to be part of the friend group that Tisdale French described. '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.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Tisdale French's representatives for comment. 

Moore spoke out about the essay just weeks after Tisdale French, 40, scored a major financial win after her haircare brand was reported in April to have exceeded $250 million in sales.

In January, Tisdale published an essay in The Cut about a friend group of new mothers she had belonged to that allegedly began to give her the cold shoulder and stopped inviting her to events. 

Fans and observers have theorized that Tisdale French was referring to a group of mothers that includes Moore, Duff and Meghan Trainor, based on social media posts showing the group hanging out in the past, but Tisdale French's representatives have previously denied the speculation about which women she may have been referring to. 

Tisdale French revealed in her essay that she eventually severed ties with the unnamed group of women by sending a group text reading, 'This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.' 

While Moore has previously thrown her support behind Duff and her husband, Matthew Koma, after they spoke out about the essay, her latest statement seems to confirm that she is part of the mothers' group that inspired the essay.

Moore told Cohen that 'The most important thing in my life is being a kind person and like 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.

'I'd say that was the biggest takeaway, sort of the shock of like, "Wow,"' she added.

Moore admitted that it could be difficult to address interpersonal differences, and she admitted that she is 'really scared by confrontation.' 

However, she also said she's a 'huge proponent' of having direct communication when her 'feelings are hurt.'

'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,' Moore continued. 

She said her 'biggest takeaway from that whole ridiculous debacle' was that Tisdale French's essay 'sort of perpetuates this silly trope that women can't be supportive of one another, and that we're inherently petty and that we're inherently out to one-up each other, and I have not felt that one iota since becoming a parent.' 

Instead, the Candy singer claimed she had been 'surprised by the meaningful relationships I found with other moms and other parents,' adding that it is important to find 'community' and 'support wherever you can get it.'

'You need to be able to talk about all of that,' Moore said.

She shares two sons and a daughter with her husband, Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith: August 'Gus' Harrison, five; Oscar 'Ozzie' Bennett Goldsmith, three; and 20-month-old Louise 'Lou' Everett Goldsmith.

Moore and Goldsmith began dating in 2015, and they got engaged two years later, before tying the knot in November 2018 in Los Angeles. 

Moore has a special connection to fellow mom-group member Hilary Duff that was forged after her home was destroyed in the devastating LA Fires in January 2025.

While she and Goldsmith were without a home, Duff shared her mansion with Moore's family until they could find more stable accommodations. 

Moore's fullest response to the mom group drama follows Duff's admission in February on the Call Her Daddy podcast that she felt 'used' after Tisdale French's essay was published.

'I honestly felt really sad,' she said of the drama. 'I was, like, pretty, pretty taken aback and felt just, like, sad.'

Duff, 38, said that being a mother had connected her to new friends, rather than shrinking her social circle, and she claimed to have significant friendships within multiple groups of mothers.

'I have so many groups of friends. I'm so lucky,' she said. 'Motherhood has brought on, like, I have my core group of friends who have been my ride-or-dies for 10 to 20 years, and I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids. 

'So I think I just was like, "Whoa." It sucks to read something that's, like, not true,' Duff continued. 'And it sucks on behalf of, like, six women in all of their lives.'

When host Alex Cooper noted that Tisdale French had declined to name any of the allegedly catty members of the mom group, Duff shot back, 'I don't really think people had to connect very many dots.'

In an earlier conversation with the Los Angeles Times, Duff addressed how she reacted to speculation brought on by Tisdale French's essay. 

'It's hard because you're like, "Wait, whoa, that person kind of got it right," and "Whoa, that person doesn't know what they're talking about," she said, recalling a rumor that other moms and even teachers allegedly disliked her.

'I was like, "First of all… the women at school are lovely and I'm obsessed with all of them,"' Duff added.

It was Duff's husband, the musician and producer Matthew Koma, who most directly appeared to confirm that Tisdale French had been writing about Duff and the other celebrities she had previously posed with on social media. 

Shortly after the essay was published, Koma shared a version of The Cut's cover photo of Tisdale French, but he had photoshopped his own face over the Disney Channel star's visage and added a new headline: 'When You're The Most Self-Obsessed Tone-Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.' 

In a smaller subheading, he joked, 'A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father's Eye.'

Meghan Trainor, who was also alleged to be part of the group of mothers that Tisdale French wrote about, offered a more measured response to the drama while speaking to Us Weekly in April.

'I felt bad for Ashley,' she said. 'I felt bad that she was ever that sad, and I think it was just a lot of miscommunication and confusion. I don't know what happened, but I wish them all the best.'

Trainor also said that the former High School Musical star had apologized to her after the uproar.

'Ashley texted me like, "I’m sorry your name got dragged in." And I was like, "It’s all right, girl. The world’s a silly, crazy place, and they just want something to talk about,"' she said

Trainor also said she hadn't seen Tisdale or other members of her moms group in some time.

The All About That Bass singer joked that she was such a 'bad mom friend' because the last time she saw members of the friend group was 'a year ago,' which, ironically, was when she took them out to dinner as an apology for being an absent friend.