The celebrity mom group at the center of one of 2026’s first viral scandals is finally speaking out.
Ashley Tisdale French published a bombshell essay titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group” in The Cut in January 2026, where fans quickly speculated that Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor were likely in the same mom crew.
Tisdale French did not identify her former friends, though her rep stressed that Moore, Duff and Trainor were not the alleged subjects.
Keep scrolling to see what the onetime friends have said about the drama:
Ashley Tisdale French’s Viral Essay
In her essay for The Cut, Tisdale French claimed that she felt “frozen out” of a tight-knit mom group that she once considered a lifeline.
“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,” French 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.”
French eventually texted the group that “this is too high school for me” and removed herself.
Meghan Trainor Enters the Chat
Trainor was the first of the rumored group members to address the chatter. Days after Tisdale French’s essay was published, the “All About That Bass” singer posted a TikTok captioned with three tea emojis, writing on the video, “Me finding out about the apparent mom group drama,” set to her own track “Still Don’t Care.”
She doubled down on January 13, 2026, with a Stranger Things clip, captioning it, “Me still trying to convince everyone I’m not involved in the mom group drama. I swear I’m innocent.”
Trainor later told Us Weekly that she “felt bad” for Tisdale French amid the fallout.
“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,” she exclusively told Us in an April 2026 cover story. “Ashley texted me like, ‘I’m sorry, your name got dragged in.’ And I was like, ‘It’s all right, girl, like, the world’s a silly, crazy place, and they just want something to talk about.’”
Hilary Duff Says She’s ‘Obsessed’ With Her School Moms
Duff took a more measured approach, telling the Los Angeles Times that her real-life mom circle bears no resemblance to the toxic dynamic French described.
“The women at school are lovely and I’m obsessed with all of them,” Duff said in February 2026. “I mean, this is not new for me. I’ve had this since I was maybe 15 and starting to get followed around by [photographers]. Everything starts getting documented and everyone knows my life and all the players in it. So the stories that get news pickup — it’s not what happens to a normal person who maybe became an actor as an adult. And now, it’s escalated by the talking heads on TikTok that need clickbait.”
The Lizzie McGuire alum also said she copes by tuning out the noise.
“Knowing that I get to open up the backdoors and play soccer as a family and take a hot tub and go get our chicken eggs — that’s the purpose of life,” she said. “On the days when crazy s*** happens, I go home and quiet the noise.”
Mandy Moore Calls Essay ‘Upsetting’
Moore broke her silence on Andy Cohen‘s SiriusXM show Radio Andy in May 2026, and she didn’t hold back about how the essay landed.
“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,” the former This Is Us star told Cohen. “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,” she said, making clear she would have preferred a face-to-face conversation.
Moore also pushed back on the broader narrative, adding, “I think the biggest takeaway from that whole ridiculous debacle … is that I feel like it just sort of it 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.”
How the Mom Group Is Moving Forward
A source told Us weeks after Tisdale French’s essay was published that the remaining mom group members wish the Disney alum “no ill will” after allegedly being blindsided by the essay.
“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,” the insider told Us. “The moms insist there was no ‘mean girl’ behavior.”
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
