Hilary Duff Was ‘Taken Aback’ by Ashley Tisdale’s Mom Group Essay: ‘I Felt Used’

Duff has a son from her previous marriage and shares three children with her husband, songwriter Matthew Koma. “I have my core group of friends who have been my ride or dies for 20 years, 10 to 20 years, and I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids,” she said.

“So I think I just was like, whoa, it sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of six women in all of their lives.” Tisdale’s essay, titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” was published on Jan. 1. She wrote about finding community among other mothers with similar backgrounds and responsibilities, only to then feel left out of group hangouts and sit in unfavorable positions at their dinner parties.

“This is too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore,” Tisdale said she texted the group after a while. Duff didn’t want to take part in the conversation about it at all, really. “I think it came at the craziest time where I was like, the timing felt not great, and I felt used,” she said on Call Her Daddy .

Duff just made her return to music with her sixth album, Luck… or Something, which marked her first in over a decade. The single “Roommates” arrived in the aftermath of the mom group drama. While she didn’t speak on the discourse and speculation directly, her husband did.