After Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor, Mandy Moore is finally taking on Ashley Tisdale’s viral “toxic mom group,” as she wrote earlier this year.
During a recent chat with Andy Cohen on Monday, May 18 This is us the actress admitted that Tisdale’s words struck a nerve and that High School Musical alum’s decision to air things out publicly was “definitely far more upsetting” than the scrutiny they faced growing up in the limelight.
“It just cuts to the core,” said Moore, 42. “The most important thing in my life is to be a kind person and like that legacy of kindness, and anyone to even insinuate that maybe that’s not the case… is very upsetting,” she explained.
Although Moore admitted that she is “terrified of confrontation,” she emphasized the value of direct communication: “It’s not always like the most comfortable of situations, but I think that’s where I was a little different in the sense that I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way,” she said.
Calling the drama a “really slow news day,” the Tangled the voice actress also pushed back on the broader narrative the essay created, arguing that it reinforces tired stereotypes about women competing with each other.
“I’ve actually been so surprised by the meaningful relationships I’ve found with other moms,” she said. “You need community. You need to find that support wherever you can get it.”
In his January essay for New York Magazine The cutTisdale, 40, opened up about feeling “frozen out of the group, noticing in every way they seemed to exclude me.” Eventually, the mother of two left the group after texting them, “this is for high school for me and I don’t want to participate in it anymore.”
Although 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 mothers at the same time.
