They’re not just celebrity mothers, they’re also drama queens.
On New Year’s Day, “High School Musical” star Ashley Tisdale, 40, published an essay on The Cut titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group” — and stirred up a lot of baby poo.
While the piece didn’t identify any other mothers by name, fans were quick speculate around an Instagram-loving mommy clique that includes Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor. Tisdale had often featured in their group photos on social media.
In the days since Tisdale’s crabby tirade first published on The Cut it’s become a full-blown social media tantrum that just won’t go to bed, with other moms, husbands and random celebs chiming in.
In the piece, Tisdale writes that she joined a mommy group after welcoming her first daughter, Jupiter, now 4, in 2021, and “craving connection.” Initially she enjoyed the group texts and playdates, but then she started to feel left out seeing other group members hanging out without her.
“I realized that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group,” writes Tisdale, who also now has younger daughter, Emerson, 1. “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,”
Tisdale alleges that being in the group made her feel like she “was in high school again” and she didn’t know what she’d done to be left out.
She ultimately texted the group and said she didn’t want to be a part of it anymore, a move that was met with mixed reactions, but she felt she had to cut ties because, “Our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive — for me, anyway.”
Samii Ryan, 34, a clothing designer and member of the celeb mommy clique, was the first to appear to respond to the essay on social media. On Monday, she took to Instagram, reposting a video of a man opening his front doors while mouthing the words to Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Her.”
“I don’t care if these bitches don’t like me, ’cause, like, I’m pretty as f–k,” Megan raps on the track. “Just the other day, I heard a hoe say. Matter of fact, what could a hoe say? With a face like this and a bitch this paid, s–t, what could a hoe say?”
Above the clip, Ryan wrote, “2026 mood.”
Tisdale’s husband, Christopher French, 44, further stirred the pot Tuesday, sharing a cryptic post on Instagram Stories with a graphic reading, “It’s your choice whether or not to engage.”
That same day, Hillary Duff’s husband, musician Matthew Koma, mocked the essay on Instagram.
He posted a mock article from The Cut with the headline: “A mom group tell all through a father’s eyes: When You’re the Most Self-Obsessed Tone Deaf Person on Earth, Other Moms Tend to Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.”
He added in a sarcastic caption, “Read my new interview with @thecut.”
Duff, a mother-of-four, hasn’t commented on the debacle herself, but she’s previously gushed about her mommy group to the press and on social media.
She told People she sees her mom friends “two to three times a week” and relied on them “all the time” for support.
“I feel like our big connection to one another, even though we’re pop stars or on TV, is we love our kids,” the “Mature” singer told the magazine.
Adding to the fray, her sister, Haylie Duff, 40, seemed to express support for Tisdale by “liking” an Instagram post from The Cut promoting the article last week. The two sisters have been rumored to be feuding for years.
Like Hillary Duff, Moore, 41, has raved to the press about her mommy friends.
“It’s the best,” the “This Is Us” star, who has three children — August, Oscar and Louise — with husband Taylor Goldsmith, told In Style magazine. “I’ve made so many wonderful friends. We have baby classes together and it’s incredible.”
On Wednesday on Page Six Radio, Chelsea Handler defended Moore.
“I have no idea what went on, but I know Mandy Moore and she’s a wonderful, sweet person,” Handler said. “So I’ll just say that. But I don’t really know Ashley Tisdale.”
Trainor, 32, who has two sons, Riley 4, and Barry, 2, has also publicly declared her love for her mum chums.
“I have mom friends and I love them,” she captioned a snap that included Tisdale and Duff in the summer of 2022.
But, Tisdale was notably absent from a number of Instagram photos last fall, when Duff, Moore and several other moms went on a getaway to the trendy Hotel El Roblar in Ojai, Calif
Janice Gott, who runs the hands-free breast pumps business MUU, posted images of the gal gang lounging in plush robes around the pool — Tisdale not included.
While Tisdale’s rep has insisted there is “zero truth to what online ‘detectives’ think they’ve cracked” about the mom group, and implied it’s about a different group of women, the Ojai moment conjured the ending lines of Tisdale’s essay.
“If you have to wonder if they [like you]… it’s not the right group for you,” she writes. “Even if it looks like they’re having the best time on Instagram.”
The Post has reached out to Trainor, Tisdale, Moore and Duff for comment
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