Mandy Moore Speaks Out on ‘Upsetting’ Mom Group Drama, Wishes Ashley Tisdale Handled It ‘Face-to-Face’

Mandy Moore has finally spoken out about the “toxic” mom group drama that erupted at the beginning of the year after Ashley Tisdale published an essay seemingly bashing the This Is Us alum and her friends.

While speaking to Andy Cohen on the Monday (May 18) episode of his SiriusXM show Andy Cohen Live, Moore began by noting how “wild” it was to have “anybody talk about your life” in such a public capacity, calling back to the High School Musical star’s January essay for The Cut claiming she felt repeatedly “left out” by her former group of mom pals. It didn’t take long for the internet to figure out that the group in question had included Moore as well as Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor and more famous ladies.

“I know Hilary has sort of mentioned this too,” the Tangled voice actress continued. “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.”

Moore — who has two Billboard Hot 100 hits — went on to say that Tisdale’s words hit close to home, because “the most important thing in my life is being a kind person and that legacy of kindness, and anyone even insinuating that that might not be the case, and with the company that I choose to keep, is very upsetting.”

“I’m someone who is really scared by confrontation, but also when it’s important, I am a huge proponent [of] having a conversation if my feelings are hurt,” she added. “Face-to-face. It’s not always the most comfortable of situations, but I think that’s where I sort of differed in feeling like I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way.”

The Princess Diaries star isn’t the first person who felt called out by Tisdale’s essay to speak out. Trainor told Us Weekly in April that she “felt so bad” for both the other moms and “for Ashley, that she was ever that sad,” adding, “I think it was just a lot of miscommunication and confusion.”

Duff, however, was a tad more upset by the drama. “It sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of, like, six women and all of their lives,” she said on Call Her Daddy in February. “I think it came at like the craziest time where I was, like … the timing felt not great, and I felt used.”

Moore last dropped music in 2022, releasing album In Real Life that year. Her latest acting project, The Breadwinner, hits theaters on May 29.