Ashley Tisdale French has a subtle message amid the ongoing drama surrounding her allegedly “toxic” former mom group.
“Find your strength within,” Tisdale French, 40, wrote via Instagram on Friday, January 9, alongside footage of herself doing yoga in front of a desert backdrop.
The High School Musical actress added, “Coming February 1st” in her caption and tagged her lifestyle brand, Being Frenshe.
While Tisdale French seemingly teased a new collection for her wellness range, she recently found her own inner courage to speak up about her personal life and friendships. Tisdale French went viral earlier this month, publishing an essay titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group” for New York Magazine.
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“I remember being left out of a couple of group hangs, and I knew about them because Instagram made sure it fed me every single photo and Instagram Story,” she wrote in her The Cut essay. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me.”
The former child star continued, “I told myself it was all in my head, and it wasn’t a big deal. And yet, I could sense a growing distance between me and the other members of the group, who seemed to not even care that I wasn’t around much.”
Tisdale French didn’t mention any of her former companions by name in the profile, though she notably sparked a friendship with fellow celebrity moms Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, Meghan Trainor and more in 2021 after they all welcomed babies that same year.
“Hilary is the coolest and she is a super-mom. She and Matt [Koma, her husband] have become really close friends with my husband and I,” Moore, 41, previously told InStyle in May 2022. “They have a kid who’s six weeks younger than [my son] Gus. And so, we had babies at the same time and she, being the super-mom that she is, formed a cool mom club.”
Moore added at the time, “Somehow, I got invited into it and it’s the best. I’ve made so many wonderful friends. We all just gathered earlier this week and had dinner and we have baby classes together and it’s incredible. I’m very, very grateful to have those resources and just incredible women to be able to lean on. We’re all kind of going through this chapter of our lives together.”
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Ashley and husband Christopher French also welcomed their first baby, daughter Jupiter, in 2021. Their second daughter, Emerson, followed in 2024.
Over time, Ashley and the rest of the mom group began distancing from one another.
“The root of the issues was that some of the women just became closer friends with each other, and Ashley started to feel left out,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier in January. “There were times when hangouts or get-togethers were organized at the last minute, often casual outings or quick dinners, and Ashley wasn’t included.”
The insider, however, stressed that there was never any “bad intent” to purposefully exclude Ashley.
“Friendships naturally changed and some people bonded more than others,” the source claimed to Us. “They felt like she made a bigger deal out of everything. The tension largely came from what the group saw as a clash in priorities and values.”
