Not only are they celebrity mothers, they are also drama queens.
On New Year’s Day, “High School Musical” star Ashley Tisdale, 40, published an essay in The Cut titled “Farewell to the Toxic Mom Group,” which stirred up a lot of baby poop.
Although the other moms were not identified in the article, fans were quick to speculate about the Instagram-loving mom troupe, which includes Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, and Meghan Trainor. Tisdale often appeared in group photos on social media.
In the days since Tisdale’s disgusting rant was first published on The Cut, other moms, husbands, and random celebrities chimed in, turning it into a full-blown social media tantrum that’s unbearable.
In it, Tisdale wrote that she joined the mom group “desperate for connection” after welcoming her first daughter, Jupiter, now 4, in 2021. Initially, she enjoyed group texting and playdates, but began to feel left out when she saw other group members hanging out without her.
“I noticed that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group,” wrote Tisdale, who now has a second daughter, Emerson, 1. “And after seeing everyone else’s photos on social media for the third or fourth time in a hangout I wasn’t invited to, I felt like I wasn’t really part of the group after all.”
Tisdale claims that being part of the group felt like “being back in high school” and that he didn’t know what he was doing that would cause him to be left out.
She eventually texted the group and told them she no longer wanted to be a part of the group, and although the move received mixed reactions, she felt she had to cut ties because “the dynamic in our group was no longer healthy and positive for me anyway.”
Sammy Ryan, 34, a clothing designer and member of the celebrity mom clique, appeared to be the first to respond to the essay on social media. On Monday, she reposted a video on Instagram of a man opening her front door, mouthing the lyrics to Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Her.”
“I don’t care if these girls don’t like me ’cause I’m pretty as fuck,” Megan raps in the song. “I just heard a hoe say this the other day. Actually, what can a hoe say? I got paid for this with a face like this and a bitch, so what can a hoe say?”
“Feeling like 2026,” Ryan wrote above the clip.
Tisdale’s husband, Christopher French, 44, further stirred things up on Tuesday by sharing a cryptic post on his Instagram Stories with a graphic that read, “It’s your choice to be involved.”
The same day, Hilary Duff’s husband, musician Matthew Koma, mocked the essay on Instagram.
He posted a mock article for The Cut with the headline, “Mom Group Tells Everything Through Dad’s Eyes: When You’re the Most Self-centered Tone-Deaf on the Planet, Other Moms Tend to Shift Their Focus to Their Actual Toddlers.”
He added a sarcastic caption: “Read our new interview with @thecut.”
Duff, a mother of four, has not commented on the debacle herself, but has previously lashed out at mom friends groups in the press and on social media.
She told People that she meets with her mom friends “two or three times a week” and that she “constantly” relies on them for support.
“Even though we’re pop stars, even though we’re on TV, I feel like our big connection to each other is that we love kids,” the “Mature” singer told the magazine.
Adding to the fray, her sister Hayley Duff, 40, appeared to show support for Tisdale last week by liking The Cut’s Instagram post promoting Tisdale’s article. The two sisters have been rumored to have a feud over the years.
Like Hilary Duff, Moore, 41, also raved about her mom friends to the press.
“It’s amazing,” the “This Is Us” star, who has three children, August, Oscar and Louise, with husband Taylor Goldsmith, told In Style magazine. “I’ve made so many great friends. We take baby classes together and it’s been amazing.”
On Wednesday’s Page Six Radio, Chelsea Handler defended Moore.
“I don’t know what happened, but I know Mandy Moore and she’s a wonderful, kind person,” Handler said. “So, let me just say this: I don’t know much about Ashley Tisdale.”
Traynor, 32, who has two sons, Riley, 4, and Barry, 2, has also professed his love for his mother.
“I have mom friends and I love them,” she captioned a summer 2022 photo of Tisdale and Duff.
But last fall, when Duff, Moore, and several other moms vacationed at the trendy Hotel El Lobra in Ojai, Calif., Tisdale was noticeably absent from many of the Instagram photos.
Janice Gott, who runs hands-free breast pump business MUU, posted an image of a group of gals lounging around a pool in plush robes, but Tisdale was not included.
Although Tisdale’s rep claims that there is “zero truth to what online ‘sleuths’ think they’ve uncovered” about the mom group, hinting that it’s about a different group of women, the Ojai moment reminded me of the last sentence of Tisdale’s essay.
“If you doubt whether they like you, it’s not the right group for you,” she writes. “Even if it looks like you’re having the best time on Instagram.”
The Post has reached out to trainers Tisdale, Moore and Duff for comment.
