Mandy Moore Reflects on Shifting Friendships After Ashley Tisdale’s “Toxic” Mom Group Essay

Mandy Moore has shared a thoughtful and emotional take on how friendships can change during motherhood — comments that come shortly after Ashley Tisdale publicly criticized a former celebrity mom group she described as “toxic.”

During an appearance on the Conversations with Cam podcast, Moore spoke candidly about how her closest relationships have shifted as she navigates parenting. Without naming names, the This Is Us actress said she has seen some friendships “take a different course” over time.

Moore explained that she naturally feels closest now to parents who are in the same stage of life.
“I have friends who have kids that are older,” she shared, adding that many of the people she connects with most today are parents raising children around the same age as hers.

The actress, who shares sons August, 4, and Oscar, 3, and daughter Louise, 16 months, with husband Taylor Goldsmith, admitted that even when friends’ kids are similar in age, relationships can still change.

“I’ve had to sort of mourn in a way how some of those friendships have changed,” Moore said, noting that the shift isn’t about blame or hurt feelings.

Podcast host Cameron Rogers echoed the sentiment, saying that having friends with children at different stages often means priorities and schedules no longer align.
“It doesn’t mean you love anyone less,” Rogers said. “But the reality is you’re going to be in more contact with the people whose kids are your exact age.”

Moore agreed, explaining that shared challenges — sleepless nights, milestones, and daily parenting stress — naturally create strong bonds between parents going through the same experiences at the same time.

Her comments come just over a week after Tisdale published a widely discussed essay for The Cut, in which she reflected on feeling excluded from a celebrity mom group that included Moore, Hilary Duff, and Meghan Trainor.

In the essay, Tisdale wrote about noticing group text chats and hangouts that didn’t include everyone, which led her to feel left out and question why she continued to show up.
“After the third or fourth time of seeing social media photos of everyone else at a hangout that I didn’t get invited to, it felt like I wasn’t really part of the group,” she wrote.

The situation escalated when Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, appeared to mock Tisdale by posting a fake Cut magazine cover featuring himself and a sarcastic headline aimed at the controversy.

Soon after, Tisdale’s husband Christopher French added to the speculation by sharing a cryptic quote online about choosing “whether or not to engage.”

While Moore did not directly address Tisdale or the essay, her comments highlighted a broader reality many parents face — that friendships often evolve as life stages change, even when no one is intentionally being hurtful.