Ashley Tisdale’s husband Christopher French weighs in on how ‘toxic mom group’ drama was handled
Christopher French has finally come clean, claiming he has ‘no problem’ supporting his wife Ashley Tisdale-French amid the viral ‘toxic mom group’ drama.
An article appeared in The Cut earlier this year, written by the High School Musical actress, 41, titled ‘Breaking Up With My Toxic Mon Group: I thought I found my village. Instead, I was back in high school.’
The ex Disney Channel star claimed in the piece that she believed she was ‘not cool enough’ to hang out with the group, accusing the women of ‘mean girl behaviour’.
“This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore,” she wrote at the time.
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Although she ‘never considered the moms to be bad people [except for] maybe one’, she ultimately chose to cut ties with them after the dynamic allegedly ‘stopped being healthy and positive.’
“In my mom group, I started to notice that certain people would get talked about when they weren’t present, and not in a positive way,” she said in a candid blog post.
“I realised that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group. And 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 after all.”
Tisdale also said estrangement from the group—thought to include Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor, and Mandy Moore—‘brought [her] to tears’.
Nine months after the bombshell claims were initially made, Tisdale’s husband, Chris French, has finally broken his silence.
Speaking to Page Six, the Recovering podcaster described his wife as a ‘super smart, capable person, and she knows what she’s doing’.
“That’s part of what I love about her,” the 44-year-old gushed.
Referencing the mother-of-two’s friendship breakup, French claimed he had ‘no problem supporting [his] wife completely in her ability to deal with her own interpersonal relationships in whatever way feels is right for her’.
He added that he did not need to get involved with her relationships, nor did he feel like he had to speak on her behalf.
“She’s a really smart chick. She’s a very capable person, which is really what made it so hard. We are very private, but in speaking to something that really matters to her.”
Duff, whom Tisdale has never mentioned by name, previously discussed the Scary Movie 5 star’s article, claiming she felt ‘really sad’ after reading it.
“I was pretty taken aback and felt just sad,” the 39-year-old said on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“It sucks on behalf of, like, six women,” she added.
Duff’s husband Matthew Koma also chimed in on the allegations, spoofing Tisdale’s promo photo for the essay and renaming it: “A mom group tell all through a father’s eyes: When You’re the Most Self-Obsessed Tone Deaf Person on Earth, Other Moms Tend to Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.”
On the podcast, the ‘So Yesterday’ icon claimed she wasn’t aware of her spouse’s now-deleted diss prior to posting
“Honestly, everything he does makes me laugh. So I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But I also don’t censor him, and I don’t tell him what he can and can’t post. He is so, like, fierce for me, and I love him for that.”
Ella Scott