Ashley Tisdale said she left a celebrity mom group after feeling increasingly excluded, describing the environment as unhealthy in a personal essay published in The Cut.
The actor and singer, who rose to fame as a Disney Channel star, wrote that the decision followed months of feeling sidelined within a group of high-profile mothers formed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tisdale said the experience resonated with women who reached out, saying the situation was familiar to them.
"Since becoming a public figure as a teenager, it's often the thing I least expect that people most want to talk about," Tisdale wrote in The Cut. "Sometimes, I'll say something offhandedly, only to see it turn into a headline or start a conversation on TikTok. There's one recent topic that has made my phone blow up like no other."
Tisdale shares two daughters, Jupiter French, 4, and Emerson French, 1, with her husband, composer Christopher French.
She previously detailed the situation in a post on her lifestyle blog, where she described leaving what she characterized as a "toxic" celebrity parent circle.
Although she did not name the women involved, the group has been reported to include Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. According to Tisdale, the group was formed by a mutual friend and included several women who had recently become mothers.
The group initially bonded while raising young children during the pandemic, according to Tisdale.
"What I remember most from those early days was how impressed I was by those women and all of the amazing things they had going on," she wrote. "They were building brands, running their own companies, launching creative projects. They just happened to also be mothers of young kids."
Tisdale said she felt a sense of belonging and inspiration from being surrounded by working mothers balancing careers and family life.
"By the time we started getting together for playdates and got the group chat going, I was certain that I'd found my village," she wrote.
Over time, however, she said she noticed she was being left out of gatherings and conversations. Initially, she said she dismissed the feeling, but the distance became harder to ignore.
"During the early days of the group, there was another mom who often wasn't included," Tisdale wrote. "Now it seemed that this group had a pattern of leaving someone out. And that someone had become me."
Tisdale said she eventually addressed the issue directly in a text message to the group, writing, "'This is too high school for me, and I don't want to take part in it anymore.'"
Tisdale said some members tried to address the issue, but the situation did not change.
"I'm not in high school anymore. I'm a mom," Tisdale wrote. "And it's because I'm a mom that I couldn't stay quiet."
She said her decision to speak up was prompted by the hope that it could set an example for her children.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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