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Sharpay Evans would never be excluded from a clique, but Ashley Tisdale claims she was. In an essay titled, “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group. I Thought I Found My Village. Instead, I was in High School,” the 40-year-old Disney Channel alum wrote about her experience with an anonymous group of women, whom internet users speculated included famous pals Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor.
The women used to hang out on a few occasions, as seen in pictures from the past, and Ashley no longer follows Hilary or Mandy; ergo, social media sleuths tried to dig deeper into the narrative. So, what has Ashley said about the uproar from her essay?
Former Disney Channel star Christy Carlson Romano and Meghan chimed in on the chatter too. The Cadet Kelly star shared a TikTok post discussing the dynamic of mom groups. Christy said, in part, “In the end, if you can make time for the people that matter to you, they should be giving back to you as much as you’re putting out. And if that dynamic shifts, then just go find another group of friends. It’s very simple. It’s not supposed to be dramatic. … Sometimes, it gets a little crazy, and then you write an article about it.”
As for Meghan, the “Dear Future Husband” artist shared a TikTok video of herself typing on a computer with the caption, “Me finding out about the apparent mom group drama,” included with the clip.
Here’s what we know about the “mom group” that Ashley was a part of.
What Did Ashley Tisdale Write About the ‘Toxic Mom Group’?
In the essay published through The Cut, Ashley described the “ugly” group’s “mean girl behavior” and her feelings of exclusion that left her “hurt, drained and left out.”
“I realized that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group,” the former Suite Life of Zack & Cody star wrote. “And after the third or fourth time of seeing social media photos of everyone else at a hangout that I didn’t get invited to, it felt like I wasn’t really part of the group after all.”
Ashley then recalled “sitting alone one night after getting [her] daughter to bed … feeling totally lost as to what [she] was doing ‘wrong’ to be left out” of her frenemy-filled group. While she “never considered the moms to be bad people [except for] maybe one [of them],” she cut ties with them after the “dynamic stopped being healthy and positive.”
“This is too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore,” Ashley concluded.
Who Is in the ‘Toxic Mom Group’?
Ashley never states any names in her “toxic mom group” essay, though internet users speculated that it included Hilary, Mandy, Meghan and more women who have been seen in past photos.
A rep for Ashley denied that The Cut essay was ever about Mandy, Hilary or Meghan. As noted by TMZ, the rep insisted there was “zero truth to what online ‘detectives’ think they’ve cracked.” The outlet further noted that the rep said Ashley pulled “from her own experience of being shut out of social hangs,” which unveils a “very real issue in mom circles.”
However, Hilary’s husband, Matthew Koma, may have fueled the fire when he outwardly mocked Ashley’s essay headline. Via his Instagram Stories, Matthew edited a picture of himself onto where Ashley was, and he rewrote the headline to read, “When You’re The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers. A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father’s Eyes.” He wrote across the Story, “Read my interview with @TheCut.”
Did Anyone Else React to the ‘Toxic Mom Group’ Essay?
Yes, Hilary was asked about Ashley’s essay during a February 2026 interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“This is not new for me,” the “Mature” singer told the publication. “I’ve had this since I was maybe 15 and starting to get followed around by paparazzi. 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.”
Hilary continued, “I saw something that was like, ‘None of the moms at school actually like her and neither do the teachers,’ and I was like, ‘First of all… By the way, the women at school are lovely and I’m obsessed with all of them.’”
