It’s been 20 years since Ashley Tisdale French played queen bee Sharpay Evans in High School Musical. But as the Frenshe founder wrote in a recent essay for The Cut, navigating a “toxic mom group” had her feeling like a teenager all over again.
Since the essay — part of the outlet’s “It’s Been a Year” series — was published on Jan. 1, many readers have speculated about the identities of the unnamed women French (who now goes by her husband’s surname) claimed excluded her from group get-togethers. But today, French is shutting down rumors that fellow celebrities like Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, or Meghan Trainor are among the ex-friends in question.
“A Growing Distance”
ICYMI, French’s essay chronicles her experience finding what she thought to be a “village” in a group of new moms who, like her, were also involved in creative and entrepreneurial spaces. “It made me hopeful about finding the balance between fulfilling work and family life, since all these cool women were able to do it,” she wrote. “Maybe we’d be able to share our secrets to success.”
But eventually, French said she found herself excluded from group hangouts — including one that had been planned at her daughter’s birthday party. While she first tried to shrug off this “growing distance,” she came to believe her new friends “had a pattern of leaving someone out. And that someone had become me.”
French didn’t know the reason for her apparent exclusion, but told the group it was “too high school” for her before stepping away. “To be clear, I have never considered the moms to be bad people. (Maybe one.),” she wrote. “But I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive — for me, anyway.”
French discouraged readers from attempting to uncover the specifics behind her friend breakup. After first discussing the subject on her blog, she wrote, it “made wannabe online sleuths try to do some investigating like they’re on CSI (please, don’t even try — whatever you think is true isn’t even close).”
Of course, this didn’t stop users from speculating anyway, especially as French has been photographed socially with groups of moms that include fellow celebrities like Moore, Trainor, and Duff. And TMZ pointed out that as of writing, French doesn’t follow Duff or Moore on Instagram.
French’s Rep Responds
On Jan. 5, a representative for French told TMZ the essay wasn’t about the aforementioned celebrities at all — and that there’s in fact “zero truth” to the rumors that have been circulating, including the claim that politics were involved. (French is a registered Democrat, her rep told TMZ.)
The rep reiterated that French wrote a “beautiful, meaningful essay on a very real issue in mom circles.”
