Ashley Tisdale Exposes Mean Girl Celeb Mom Group: ‘Frozen Out’
Ashley Tisdale thought she’d found the community she needed as a new mom. But what seemed like a welcoming group of mom friends eventually turned toxic, the High School Musical star said.
Ashley Tisdale thought she’d found her ‘village’ in celebrity mom group
In March 2021, the actor and singer – who now goes by her married name, Ashley French – welcomed her first child with husband Christopher French. Their second daughter arrived in September 2024.
French, 40, went searching for new friends after becoming a mom for the first time.
“After the birth of my first daughter, I was craving connection with other mothers … I felt lucky when my friend brought together a group of new moms that she knew,” she wrote in a recent essay for The Cut, She explained that she and the other women initially bonded because they’d been pregnant and given birth during the pandemic.
French was “certain that I’d found my village,” she shared. The Disney Channel alum relished building relationships with other ambitious and creative women. Members of the group included other celebs like Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, and Megan Trainor, according to Page Six.
‘High School Musical’ star slams ‘mean girl behavior’
Unfortunately, the good feelings didn’t last.
“I remember being left out of a couple of group hangs, and I knew about them because Instagram made sure it fed me every single photo and Instagram Story,” French wrote. At a dinner party, she was seated far away from the other women. She also took notice when she didn’t receive an invite to a birthday dinner. It was classic “mean girl behavior,” she said in a blog post on her website, as cliques formed and people gossiped behind each other’s backs.
“I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me,” she recalled her essay for The Cut.
French recalled that when she first joined the group, there was another woman who “often wasn’t included” in activities. Now, she was in the role of outsider. And she couldn’t figure out why. But whatever the reason, French said the feeling took her back to her high school days. She feared she wasn’t cool enough for her new friends.
“Even though it had been decades since tenth grade, the experience of being left out felt so similar,” she wrote. But rather than quietly stew about what was wrong, French decided to speak out. She sent a message to the group after she was not invited to yet another shared activity: “This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
While a few of the other moms tried to smooth things over, others ignored her message. The tepid response left French convinced she’d made the right choice to move on.
“To be clear, I have never considered the moms to be bad people. (Maybe one.) But I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive — for me, anyway,” she wrote.
“Motherhood has enough challenges without having to wonder if the people around you are on your side,” French added. “You deserve to go through motherhood with people who actually, you know, like you. And if you have to wonder if they do, here’s the hard-earned lesson I hope you’ll take to heart: It’s not the right group for you.”
Why did Ashley Tisdale fall out with her mom friends?
While French claimed she had no idea why she was excluded from her mom group, some people theorized it might have to do with politics. On Instagram, several people noted that Tisdale had received online backlash for her posts about the late right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. They speculated that her stance might have alienated more left-leaning members of the group.
Meanwhile a source told The Sun that French was iced out because of her behavior following the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles. Moore’s home was left uninhabitable after the disaster and she and her family temporarily moved in with Duff. But French was allegedly MIA when her friends needed her.
“Multiple members of the group were impacted, some worse than others, and Ashley hardly checked in,” the insider claimed. “She didn’t offer to help with the means she has. She just lived her own life, didn’t check in to see how they were doing, and her friends felt abandoned by her.”
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