Hilary Duff 'felt used' after Ashley Tisdale's "toxic mom group" essay

Hilary Duff "felt used" after Ashley Tisdale's "toxic mom group" essay.

The 38-year-old actress and singer has broken her silence after the High School Musical star called out "mean-girl behaviour" in a piece for The Cut about cutting ties with her friends last year.

Although Hilary had nothing she wanted to clarify regarding the essay, she told the Call Her Daddy podcast: "I think it came at like the craziest time where I was, like … the timing felt not great, and I felt used."

She was in the process of her musical comeback, which saw her drop Luck... Or Something - her first album in over 10 years - earlier this month.

In her essay last month, Ashley wrote about "breaking up" with a group of mom friends, which fans quickly speculated included fellow former Disney Channel star Hilary.

She quipped: "I don’t really think people had to connect very many dots, do you?”

The Lizzie McGuire actress felt "really sad" and "taken aback" by the article, and she insisted the claims in the piece weren't accurate.

She added: "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.”

Ashley 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".