Mandy Moore is finally addressing Ashley Tisdale French’s viral essay about her alleged mom group drama.
“It’s wild to have anybody talk about your life, and I know Hilary [Duff] has sort of mentioned this too. It’s like we both have grown up in this business and had people dissect who we are and the choices we make and all of that,” Moore, 42, said during a Monday, May 18, appearance on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show Radio Andy. “But this was something altogether different and decidedly way more upsetting … because it just cuts to the core.”
The actress continued, “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. I’d say that was the biggest takeaway, sort of the shock of like, ‘Wow.'”
Moore explained that she is the kind of person who is “really scared by confrontation,” but will address a situation if it starts to affect her wellbeing. The This Is Us alum shared that if she was feeling hurt by something, she prefers to have a “face to face” conversation.
“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 reflected. “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.”
Moore continued, “I’ve actually been so surprised by the meaningful relationships I found with other moms and other parents just in general. That has always been my takeaway, and you need that. You need community. You need to find that support wherever you can get it. You need to be able to talk about all of that.”
Earlier this year, French, 40, published an essay titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” for The Cut. In her piece, the former Disney Channel star reflected on parting ways from her mom group friends after feeling excluded.
“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. “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.”
While French did not reveal who she was referring to in the viral essay, social media speculated that the High School Musical star was referring to her famous group of mom friends that has historically included Duff, Moore, Meghan Trainor and more. French’s spokesperson denied that they were the friends in question.
