Mandy Moore shares reaction to Ashley Tisdale's viral essay
Mandy Moore has addressed Ashley Tisdale's viral essay about a "toxic" mom group for the first time.
Mandy Moore has admitted Ashley Tisdale's viral essay "cut to the core".
High School Musical star Ashley called out "mean-girl behaviour" in a piece for The Cut about cutting ties with some of her friends from a "toxic" mom group last year, sparking speculation she was referring to the likes of Mandy and Hilary Duff, and now the This Is Us star has revealed she found the scandal "way more upsetting" than other commentary on her life.
Speaking to Andy Cohoen on his SiriusXM show Radio Andy, Mandy said: "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, but this was something altogether different and decidedly way more upsetting.
It just cuts to the core.
"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.'"
The 42-year-old star - who has Gus, five, Ozzie, three, and 19-month-old Lou with husband Taylor Goldsmith - gets "really scared by confrontation" but is a "huge proponent" of speaking out when she has been upset or needs to get something off her chest, so would have handled things differently.
She said: "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."
Mandy also expressed frustration that the "ridiculous debacle" may have led to believe that women are "inherently" out to get each other, when she has found nothing but support from other mothers since having her kids.
She said: "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.
"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."
Ashley - who has Jupiter, five, and Emerson, 19 months, with husband Christopher French - first discussed leaving her "toxic" group of mom friends in a blog post.
She said: "Here’s the thing nobody prepared me for: Mom groups can turn toxic.
"Not because the moms themselves are toxic people, but because the dynamic shifts into an ugly place with mean-girl behaviour. I know this from personal experience."
Ashley explained there were group text chains that "didn't include everyone" and there were "hangouts" she didn't get invited to.
In her essay for The Cut, she went on to open up about how she started to feel "excluded", writing: "I was certain that I’d found my village.
"But over time, I began to wonder whether that was really true. 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.
"Another time, at one of the mom’s dinner parties, I realised where I sat with her - which was at the end of the table, far from the rest of the women. I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me."
