Disney Stars Toxic Feuds: Duff vs. Lohan Unveiled

Many would expect child stars to stick together, being part of an exclusive club of people who can relate to achieving fame and fortune at a young age. 

Yet when it came to the team at Disney Channel, many were involved with toxic rows, with co-stars acting like best friends on camera while really feuding behind the scenes. 

This week, finally addressed her clash with , insisting they had put their differences aside after their fallout was one of the most talked-about of the early 2000s. 

Yet they were far from the only Disney Channel stars to fall out in the public eye, with the likes of  feuding with Hannah co-star Emily Osment, while  was pitted against her Shake It Up co-star . 

Now Daily Mail reveals the other Disney alumni whose off-screen drama rivalled their on-screen success.

Lindsay Lohan vs Hilary Duff

The legendary early-2000s feud between Hilary and Lindsay has been a staple of pop culture lore for over 20 years.

The conflict began around 2002 when both stars were romantically linked to the late pop singer Aaron Carter.

Hilary met Aaron on the set of Lizzie McGuire in 2001 when they were 13, and they began dating straight away for two years. 

However, he then started getting to know her best friend at the time, Lindsay. 

In 2005, Aaron admitted he had cheated on Hilary with 'her best friend'.

'I ended up cheating on Hilary with her best friend,' he said during an interview with Donny Deutsch.

'That's nothing to smile about. She really got her heart broken from me, and I'm sorry for that,' he said at the time.

In the now-deleted interview on The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch, he also said of their romance: 'I started dating Hilary on my 13th birthday.

'I was dating her for like a year and a half, and then I just got a little bored, so I went and started getting to know Lindsay, dating Lindsay.'

Lindsay and Aaron only dated for a few months before calling it quits in 2003.

Their relationship might have been over, but it was only just the beginning of Lindsay and Hilary's feud.

The Disney stars began showing up to each other's movie premieres, in what has now been referred to as a 'silent red carpet war.'

In 2004, Lindsay appeared in a Saturday Night Live skit in which Rachel Dratch played a caricature of Duff in Lizzie McGuire mode.

'I wasn't honoured,' Hilary told Access Hollywood at the time. 'I'm not here to talk bad about her like she talks bad about me all the time. 

'I just knew that it was going to happen.'

Lindsay then took it a step further by allegedly calling Hilary's A Cinderella Story co-star Chad Michael Murray to spread lies about her, according to BuzzFeed.

Hilary told Allure in 2008: 'I've never stolen anyone's boyfriend! I don't know how you do that!' 

After years of bumping heads, Hilary finally addressed their decades-long feud as she sat down with Alex Cooper for her Call Her Daddy podcast.

Speaking about crashing the movie premiere of her 'nemesis', Hilary opened up about her long-running feud with Lindsay Lohan.

Alex asked Hilary on the podcast, 'Did you intentionally crash the Freaky Friday premiere? The lore around this, Hilary.'

Hilary then replied, 'I think absolutely. Yes. Yeah, I was a teenager.'

'Wait, were you surprised when Lindsay Lohan showed up to the Cheaper by the Dozen premiere?' Alex went on to ask.

Hilary then confirmed Lindsay was her nemesis, saying, 'No. No. I mean, that was like my childhood feud, like nemesis.'

She then added: 'I'm sure my publicist will be like, "What the f**k are you doing?"

'But now it's so many years later, like who cares? It does not matter.

'Also, Lindsay came up to me at a club once and was like, "Are we good?" And I was like, "We're good."

'She was like, "Let's take a shot." I was like, "Okay," but also Chad Michael Murray invited me.'

'Why? I don't want to start any more stuff, but he was like, "You should come with me," and I was like, "Mm-hmm. Probably I should."

'I mean, what was I like sixteen? No, I think I was younger than that. Fifteen?'

Selena Gomez vs Demi Lovato

Selena and Demi - who both dated Jonas brothers - famously kickstarted their careers in 2002 by co-starring as Angela and Gianna on the children's show Barney & Friends.

The pair also co-starred in Allison Liddi-Brown's comedy Princess Protection Program, which aired on the Disney Channel in 2009.

At the time, they appeared inseparable, going to red carpets together and posting vlogs to YouTube.

'This is my best friend in the entire world,' Demi introduced each other in the first video. Selena continued: 'And this is my best friend ever since we were 7 years old.'

But in 2010, Demi appeared to shade Selena's relationship with Taylor Swift while she was signing autographs.

Demi was asked how Selena was, and she responded: 'Ask Taylor!' 

She and the Love Story singer have a mutual ex, Joe Jonas, while Selena dated Nick Jonas at the time.

That year, Demi gave an update on her friendship with Selena in an interview with Girls Life magazine.

She said: 'We're both busy, and I wish the best for her. True friends don't let their friends or family be mean to you. If you can't trust somebody, you can't be friends with them.'

Late that year, Demi checked into rehab for an eating disorder.  

In a 2014 interview, she revealed that Selena was one of the first people to reach out to her.

In an interview with Seventeen, Selena expressed regret about how she handled the situation. 

'I've known her since we were 7, and we did fall apart for a while,' she said.

In 2013, Demi unfollowed Selena on X (formerly known as Twitter) with her admitting on Watch What Happens Live: 'I think it's just one of those things where people change and people grow apart.'

The two appeared to patch things up in 2015 as they shared a selfie together on Instagram and started showing support for each other's projects online.

In January 2018, Selena went on an unfollowing spree on Instagram where she unfollowed over 200 accounts - including Demi.

Later that year, Demi returned the action by unfollowing Selena.

A source told Entertainment Tonight that she wanted to 'focus on herself' and 'avoid any difficult relationships.'

The source continued: 'She needs to surround herself with those that support her goals and to stay away from any negativity.'

 In April 2020, Demi gave an update on where she stands with Selena, revealing they're not close anymore. 

She told Haper's Bazaar: 'When you grow up with somebody, you're always going to have love for them... But I'm not friends with her, so it felt. 

'I will always have love for her, and I wish everybody nothing but the best.'

Last year, Demi said she 'couldn't be happier' for Selena ahead of her wedding to Benny Blanco.

During an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Demi said: 'I couldn't be happier for her. She's engaged. I just wish her the best.'

Sabrina Carpenter vs Olivia Rodrigo

Sabrina Carpenter and Oliva Rodrigo were allegedly embroiled in an awkward love triangle with Joshua Basset back in 2020.

Joshua has long been rumoured to be the subject of Olivia's January 2021 breakup ballad Driver's License, which catapulted her to superstardom. 

The pair reportedly dated while shooting the first two seasons of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which premiered on Disney+ in 2019.

Due to the assumptions made about the song, Joshua became a target online to Olivia's protective fanbase.

Fans also suspected Sabrina was the 'other woman' referenced in the song's lyrics as Olivia notably sings about 'that blonde girl' who 'made [her] doubt' the relationship. 

She also notes in the lyrics that the unnamed blonde is 'much older than me', which many took to refer to Olivia and Sabrina's three-year age difference. 

Sabrina, who also got her start on Disney Channel, was reportedly linked to Joshua in mid-2020 but they were broken up by 2021. 

Shortly after Driver's License, Sabrina also released a song called Skin, which has been seen by many as retaliation.

The lyrics, seemingly addressing Olivia, go: 'Maybe we could have been friends; If I met you in another life; Maybe then we could pretend; There's no gravity in the words we write.

'Maybe you didn't mean it; Maybe blonde was the only rhyme; The only rhyme.'

Elsewhere, Joshua himself also released a track thought to be associated with the drama, titled Lie Lie Lie. 

'So they told me all the things that you said; Running all over my name, oh-oh-oh,' he sang.

'And you're acting, oh, so innocent; Like I'm the only one to blame.'

Olivia and her ex Joshua have never publicly confirmed or denied anything relating to their alleged romance and breakup.

Despite their alleged drama, Olivia and Joshua showed that they had moved forward amicably when they reunited on the High School Musical season three premiere red carpet in 2022. 

In interviews, Olivia has also stressed that there is no bad blood between her and Sabrina.

'I actually don't know her at all. I think we've met once or twice in passing, but I've never had a conversation with her,' she told Radio.com in 2021.

'So, I don't think I could write a song that was meaningful or emotional about somebody that I don't know. But I think artists should be able to write about whatever they want to write about.'

She also insisted that the identity of the person in the lyrics is the least important part of the song - albeit understanding the curiosity.

In an interview with Variety, she also remarked: 'I don't really subscribe to hating other women because of boys. I think that's so stupid, and I really resent that narrative that was being tossed around.' 

Sabrina also addressed the 'era' in her Rolling Stone interview, admitting she 'doesn't think about it, ever'. 

Quipping at the 'blonde girl' lyric, she added: 'I've tried being brunette, and it didn't look good on me, so this is what it is.'

Bella Thorne vs Zendaya

Bella and Zendaya played on-screen best friends on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up! from 2010 to 2013.

But behind the scenes, their on-screen friendship couldn't have been further from the truth. 

In 2021, Bella said she was reluctant to befriend her co-star during the show's first season as they were repeatedly compared to one another.

She told Us Weekly: 'It's like we said [in] a couple interviews when we were younger, how we explained how in the first season we weren't friends and it took us those other two seasons of becoming so close.

'[It was hard] not having someone pitted against you [before] and then all of a sudden, now everyone is pitting you against each other. 

'That fed into our heads. It made us not [be] friends in that first season.' 

Shake It Up saw Bella and Zendaya star as teenage best friends CeCe Jones and Rocky Blue, who land jobs dancing on their favourite TV series.

Bella added that she and Zendaya went on to become close friends after a candid conversation on set, and they're still pals after the series ended.

The Infamous star admitted she still doesn't understand why she and Zendaya are still compared to one another, but she's since learned to 'block it out and just don't even listen to the noise.'

Zendaya previously told Seventeen that the two are aware of the attention paid to their relationship, particularly when it comes to their friendship.

She said: 'We'll post things to each other on social media, but we know everybody's looking at that. So, if she wants to talk, she'll call me or text me.'

Miley Cyrus vs Emily Osment

Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment played best friends throughout the entirety of Hannah Montana.

But in reality, the pair didn't actually get along.

In her 2009 memoir, Miles To Go, Miley claimed that she tried to be real-life friends with her on-screen BFF, but they always ended up arguing. 

She wrote: 'The show felt real to me, and I wanted my relationship with Lilly to feel real, too.

'I knew it didn't have to - show business is show business - but I was disappointed. 

'There were times when I didn't think we could ever be friends. We just couldn't figure out how to get along.' 

In 2020, it looked like any feud was behind them as they reunited for a virtual reunion on Miley's Instagram.

Miley introduced Emily as a 'badass best friend,' and they spent the segment reminiscing over old photos and their shared love for animals.