Following Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor, Mandy Moore is finally weighing in on Ashley Tisdale’s viral “toxic mom group” essay that she penned earlier this year.
During a recent chat with Andy Cohen on Monday, May 18, the This Is Us actress admitted that Tisdale’s words struck a nerve, and that the High School Musical alum’s decision to air things out publicly was “decidedly way more upsetting” than the scrutiny they faced growing up in the spotlight.
“It just cuts to the core,” said Moore, 42. “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… is very upsetting,” she explained.
Though Moore admitted she’s “scared by confrontation,” she stressed the value of direct communication: “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 said.
Calling the drama a “real slow news day,” the Tangled voice actress also pushed back on the broader narrative the essay created, arguing it reinforces tired stereotypes about women being competitive with one another.
“I’ve actually been so surprised by the meaningful relationships I found with other moms,” she said. “You need community. You need to find that support wherever you can get it.”
In her January essay for New York Magazine’s The Cut, Tisdale, 40, opened up about feeling “frozen out of the group, noticing every way they seemed to exclude me.” Finally, the mom-of-two left the group after texting them, “this is too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
Though Tisdale didn’t mention anyone by name, she was known to have bonded with Moore, Duff, and Trainor in recent years after they all became moms around the same time.
