Hilary Duff Speaks Out on Tisdales Toxic Mom Scandal

'I was like, "First of all… the women at school are lovely and I'm obsessed with all of them,"' she added.

When asked how she copes with online chatter, Duff said it depends on the day.

'Knowing that I get to open up the backdoors and play soccer as a family and take a hot tub and go get our chicken eggs - that's the purpose of life,' she shared. 'On the days when crazy s**t happens, I go home and quiet the noise.'

The essay also prompted a pointed, and satirical, response from Duff's husband, singer-songwriter Matthew Koma.

Shortly after it was published, he posted a photoshopped image to his Instagram Story that recreated The Cut's cover photo of Tisdale, this time featuring his own face and a fictional headline reading: 'When You're The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.' 

A smaller subhead joked, 'A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father's Eye.'

Tisdale's original essay detailed her experience feeling increasingly excluded from her mom circle during the postpartum period. 

While she stressed that she did not consider the women 'bad people (maybe one),' she wrote that the group dynamic stopped feeling healthy for her and described noticing gatherings she was not invited to - only to see them later posted on Instagram.

'It took me back to an unpleasant but familiar feeling I thought I'd left behind years ago,' she wrote. 'Here I was sitting alone one night after getting my daughter to bed thinking Maybe I'm not cool enough?'

She ultimately said she chose to step away, texting the group: 'This is too high school for me and I don't want to take part in it anymore.'

Fans further fueled speculation after Tisdale unfollowed both Duff and Moore on Instagram around the time the essay ran. 

The actress had previously spoken warmly about the group, once calling it her 'village of moms' after welcoming her daughter Jupiter in 2021, and thanking them publicly as recently as January 2025 for support during the Los Angeles wildfires.

While Tisdale has never publicly identified the women involved, Duff and Moore appear to remain close. 

The longtime friends have spoken openly about their bond, even living together during last year's wildfires after Moore lost her family home, and have recently shared photos from a festive outing with their children.

Duff shares son Luca Cruz Comrie, 13, with ex-husband Mike Comrie, and daughters Banks Violet, 7, Mae James, 4, and Townes Meadow, 1, with Koma.