Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | May 19, 2026
Back in January, which feels like 18 billion years ago, Ashley Tisdale wrote an essay for The Cut that essentially read her former mom group for filth. Why was this a big deal? Well, the group included other famous moms like Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor, and Mandy Moore, so we had ourselves a big ol’ celebrity scandal.
What was the whole thing really about? I honestly couldn’t tell you, but Duff’s husband didn’t help things by blasting Tisdale on Instagram, which earned him kudos from Moore. Duff would also take a couple more shots while promoting her new album, so nobody was beating the mean girl allegations. But like any tabloid drama, the mom group fiasco fell so far to the wayside that I forgot it even happened. Until now.
With a new movie to promote, Nate Bargatze’s The Breadwinner, Mandy Moore is wisely dipping back into the toxic group well. Nothing makes for cheap and easy headlines than celeb moms going at it. (You clicked on this one!) Notably, Moore continues to side with Duff, but the situation can still be read either way: Tisdale was the problem or she was bullied out. Maybe both.
Via PEOPLE:
“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,” she said. “It just cuts to the core.”
But Mandy More leads with kindness, you guys, and having a “legacy of kindness,” so she has nothing but kindness for the other moms she’s met as a parent. She’s mostly just upset that this drama makes it look like women are never more than a step away from going Real Housewives on each other, which is ironic considering she had this conversation with Andy Cohen.
“I think the biggest takeaway from that whole ridiculous debacle … is that I feel like it just sort of it perpetuates this silly trope that women can’t be supportive of one another,” Moore said. “And that we’re inherently petty and that we’re inherently out to one-up each other, and I have not felt that one iota since becoming a parent.”
You can watch Mandy Moore’s full thoughts on the mom group fiasco below:
