Hilary Duff Responds To Ashley Tisdale’s “Toxic” Mom Group Essay

Hilary Duff is finally addressing Ashley Tisdale’s viral “toxic” mom group essay, which The Cut published in January. In the piece, Tisdale said that she felt excluded by her group of mom friends, so much so that she eventually decided to part ways with the other women. Though she did not names, people quickly identified the group she was talking about — a crew that included Duff, Mandy Moore, and Meghan Trainor.

Duff has stayed pretty silent on the situation, but she responded to it directly during a Feb. 25 episode of Call Her Daddy. “I felt really sad. I honestly felt really sad. I was pretty, pretty taken aback and felt just sad,” she told host Alex Cooper. “I have so many groups of friends. I'm so lucky. Motherhood has brought on... like I have my like core group of friends who have been my ride or dies for 10 to 20 years, and I have like tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids.”

“I was just like, ‘Whoa.’ It sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of six women and all of their lives,” she continued.

Duff also questioned the timing of Tisdale’s essay, which closely coincided with her return to music. “I think it came at the craziest time where I was like my like the timing felt not great and I felt used.” Cooper asked, “Like, would this have happened had you not had your big resurgence and everything going on with you?” Duff confirmed the theory with a nod.

Duff also discussed her husband Matthew Koma’s way of addressing the sitch. ICYMI, on Instagram Stories, Koma shared a mock version of Tisdale’s article — in the post, he was dressed and posed to mirror Tisdale’s photo in The Cut. His headline read: "When You're The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers." Koma added the sub-headline: "A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father's Eyes."

Apparently, Duff did not approve the post, but she was not upset by it either. “Honestly, everything he does makes me laugh. So, I was like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God.’ But I also don’t censor him and I don’t tell him what he can and can’t post,” Duff said. “He is so fierce for me, and I love him for that.”