Ashley Tisdale’s ‘toxic mom group’ feud escalates as husband responds to backlash

Ashley Tisdale’s “toxic mom group” essay for The Cut has exploded across the internet, causing readers to speculate as to whom she was referring to in the piece. The High School Musical alum was previously a member of a mother’s group that included stars like Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor, yet left due to the group’s alleged “toxic” behavior.

Following backlash from Hilary’s husband, Matthew Koma, on Tuesday, Ashley’s husband has responded to the drama with his own thoughts on the matter. Christopher French, a composer and musician, reshared an Instagram post from artist Tyler Spangler on Wednesday that read: “It’s your choice whether or not to engage.”

He also shared a quote credited to Cory Allen that said: “Underrated life skill: pausing to decide if it’s worth your energy.” It is unclear if the posts were directed at Matthew, who just a day prior shared a spoof image of his face superimposed over Ashley’s from her The Cut cover.

In the original photo, Ashley sat on a lounge with one leg crossed over the other and her hand on her face.

Learn more about Hilary and Matthew below…

Matthew then photoshopped a fake headline that read: “When You’re The Most Self-Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers,” alongside the subheading: “A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father’s Eyes.”

“Read my new interview with @TheCut,” he captioned the post. The musician shares kids Banks, seven, Mae, four and Townes, one, with Hilary, and she also shares 13-year-old Luca with her ex-husband, Mike Comrie.

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Ashley published her essay, ‘Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group’, on January 1, and detailed her decision to leave her mother’s group as they continued to leave her out of events and meet-ups. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me,” she wrote.

“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.”

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“To be clear, I have never considered the moms to be bad people (maybe one). But I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive – for me anyway,” she said.  

The 40-year-old’s representative later clarified to TMZ that she was not referring to Hilary, Mandy or Meghan when she wrote about the group’s “toxic” behavior, yet she did unfollow them prior to the essay’s publication.

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Ashley and Christopher have been married since 2014, and share two daughters: Jupiter, four, and Emerson, one. The actress opened up about their decision to have kids several years into their marriage, sharing that it allowed them to know each other more deeply.

“We definitely had a really good foundation of years to just learn about each other before having kids, which I think is so important because just kids change everything,” she told People.

© Disneyland Resort via Getty Imag

“One of the things I noticed is that it brings out the flaws more in each other, the flaws that you’ve always known about your person. You’re like, ‘Oh, it’s fine.’ But then when you have kids, it is, ‘Oh my God.’ It bothers you more for some reason.”

“The best thing is that me and Chris, I think, found each other at the right time,” she concluded.