How Ashley Tisdale is really doing after 'toxic mom group' essay drama
Christopher French has reflected on his wife Ashley Tisdale's viral "toxic mom group" essay at the beginning of the year, and revealed how the High School Musical star is getting on around nine months later.
Ashley Tisdale's husband Christopher French has insisted they're "doing fine" almost a year after her "toxic mom group" drama.
The 41-year-old actress sparked controversy and speculation in January when she shared an essay about her decision to part ways with some of her famous friends.
Now, Recovering podcast host Christopher has told Page Six: "We’re doing fine.
“She’s a super smart, capable person, and she knows what she’s doing and that’s part of what I love about her.
"I have no problem supporting my wife completely in her ability to deal with her own interpersonal relationships in whatever way [she] feels is right for her, without getting involved or feeling like I have to speak for her."
Christopher hailed his wife as a "really smart chick and "a very capable person".
He added that while they "are very private", he understood while she felt the need to talk about "something that really matters to her".
At the beginning of the year, the High School Musical star 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.
She wrote at the time: "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.
Reflecting on the fallout to the piece, she previously told WWD: "I think that in the audience it was for, the response I got was pretty amazing. It reached who it needed to reach."
In May, Mandy Moore opened up about her reaction to the viral essay.
Speaking to Andy Cohoen on his SiriusXM show Radio Andy, she 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.'"
Lizzie McGuire actress Hilary felt "really sad" and "taken aback" by the article, and she insisted the claims in the piece weren't accurate.
She previously told the Call Her Daddy podcast: "Motherhood has brought on, like — I have my core group of friends who have been my ride or die for 20 years, 10 to 20 years, and I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids, you know?
“So, I think I just was like, ‘Whoa.’ It sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of, like, six women and all of their lives.”
