Ashley Tisdale French set off a firestorm with her once-tight circle of celebrity moms in January 2026 after she abruptly left the group and proceeded to write an essay about former friends’ “toxic” behavior.
“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 in January 2026 in the aftermath of French’s The Cut piece. “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.”
According to the insider, there wasn’t any “bad intent” to exclude French from the meetups.
“Friendships naturally changed and some people bonded more than others,” the source claimed. “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.”
Who Is in Ashley Tisdale’s Celeb Mom Group? Everything to Know
Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor were all linked to French’s mom group at the time of the bombshell interview and have little by little broken their silence over the drama.
Keep scrolling for a complete timeline of French’s celebrity mom group drama:
July 2021
Ashley Tisdale French, Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor went viral when they started sharing group Instagram pics from mommy-and-me music classes with their respective babies.
“All da babies,” Duff wrote via Instagram Stories, later joking that French’s daughter Jupiter had “that strong side eye” in the photos.
Duff and husband Matthew Koma welcomed their second daughter, Mae, earlier that year, around the same time that Ashley and husband Christopher French welcomed Jupiter. Moore and Trainor also welcomed their respective first children, sons Gus and Riley, in 2021.
Duff also shares son Luca with ex Mike Comrie, as well as three daughters with Koma. Moore is also mom of Ozzie and Louise, while Trainor welcomed son Barry in 2023 and daughter Mikey via surrogate in January 2026. As for Ashley, she later gave birth to daughter Emerson in 2024.
May 2022
Mandy Moore revealed in an InStyle interview that Hilary Duff spear-headed the parenting group.
“Hilary is the coolest and she is a super-mom. She and Matt have become really close friends with my husband and I,” Moore told InStyle, referring to husband Taylor Goldsmith. “They have a kid who’s six weeks younger than [our 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.”
She continued, “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.”
According to Moore, it was “so much fun” to hang out with the crew.
“I’m very, very grateful to have those resources and just incredible women to be able to lean on,” the This Is Us alum recalled. “We’re all kind of going through this chapter of our lives together.”
How Ashley Tisdale’s Former Mom Group Is Moving Forward After Viral Essay
November 2025
Months before Ashley Tisdale French revealed her group exit, Hilary Duff detailed her experiences navigating various friendship breakups.
“There [were] a few people where I was like, ‘Oh I think that person is not trustworthy,’” the Younger alum said on the “Therapuss” podcast. “I’ve always had a really good gauge of people. I think it’s, like, a little talent that I have. I have really good friends and it doesn’t take me long to figure someone out or just figure out that someone’s not for me.”
Duff further revealed insights into her friend group — without naming anyone in particular.
“I think that a lot of us hold that space for each other, like, to where we could come with problems, but I’m just very direct. Maybe a little too much sometimes,” Duff said, noting that she doesn’t “like to fight with people” but doesn’t “like to have a rub with someone or something and not work through it.”
Duff further stressed that friendship breakups can sometimes be the best move.
“It’s OK to edit. But you feel like a bad person when you’re doing it,” Duff said. “You have to just own it and be like, ‘I can’t show up for you in this capacity right now. It feels overwhelming. And, blah blah blah. Like, I need some space.’ I’ve had to do it a few times. I just always want my side of the street to be clean.”
January 2026
Ashley Tisdale French claimed in an essay for New York Magazine’s The Cut that she left her “toxic” mom group.
“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,” the High School Musical actress wrote. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me. … 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.”
Without mentioning any of her former friends by name, the commentary swiftly went viral — and even reached Hilary Duff’s husband. Matthew Koma joked via his Instagram Stories that he also planned to write a tell-all exposé about the group after Ashley’s “tone-deaf” version.
Duff and Mandy Moore, meanwhile, were surprised by French’s essay.
“They all feel blindsided and hurt by Ashley speaking out the way she did,” a second source told Us. “From their perspective, they believed the group was supportive and coming from a good place, and they never thought there was any bad intent behind how things played out.”
Meghan Trainor, for her part, and husband Daryl Sabara have both broken their silence and denied any beef on their end. Daryl told TMZ that month that there was, “No drama over here, just trying to keep the kids happy.”
Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore’s Friendship Timeline Through the Years
February 2026
Mandy Moore sang Hilary Duff’s praises amid the fallout of their alleged drama with Ashley Tisdale French, telling Glamour that Duff is “such an incredible talent and such an incredible mother.”
The A Walk to Remember actress noted, “Seeing the way that she balances her life is really inspiring to me.”
Moore revealed she’s “exceedingly lucky that my kids happen to spend time with people that I feel like our values are aligned with,” referring to Duff and her husband, Matthew Koma.
She concluded, “The friends that I’ve made since becoming a parent are some of the deeper, more surprising friendships I’ve found as an adult.”
Later that month, Duff sounded off about the drama with French during an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“I felt really sad. I honestly felt really sad. I was pretty, pretty taken aback and felt just sad,” Duff recalled. “I have so many groups of friends. I’m so lucky. I have my core group of friends who have been my ride or dies for 20 years … and I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids.”
The musician noted that it “sucks to read something that’s not true,” adding that it “sucks on behalf of six women and all of their lives.”
Duff concluded, “I think it came at, like, the craziest time. The timing felt not great and I felt used.”
