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Mandy Moore is singing Hilary Duff’s praises — as a mother and musician — after the pair faced drama surrounding Ashley Tisdale French‘s “toxic” mom group allegations.
“She’s such an incredible talent and such an incredible mother,” Moore, 41, told Glamour of Duff, 38, in a cover story published on Tuesday, February 17. “Seeing the way that she balances her life is really inspiring to me.”
The A Walk to Remember actress added, “I think Hilary’s just managed to really find a system that works for her, and I feel like it’s a great template for me [or] for any of us on how to find that delicate balance.”
Moore noted that she feels “exceedingly lucky that my kids happen to spend time with people that I feel like our values are aligned with,” which includes Duff, who is making headlines for her recent return to music while facing heat over being part of an alleged mean girl mom group that includes Moore — and formally French, 40.
Moore, who shares sons Gus, 4, and Ozzie, 3, and daughter Louise, 16 months, with husband Taylor Goldsmith, has bonded with Duff over motherhood after she welcomed her first child the same year that Duff gave birth to her third.
Duff, who, like Moore, was a teen star, shares daughters Banks, 7, Mae, 4, and Townes, 21 months, with husband Matthew Koma. She is also the mother of son Luca, 13, whom she shares with ex-husband Mike Comrie.
“The friends that I’ve made since becoming a parent are some of the deeper, more surprising friendships I’ve found as an adult,” Moore told the magazine.
Moore’s praise of fellow Hollywood mom Duff comes more than one month after French raised eyebrows in January for writing about leaving a group of mom friends in a personal essay published by New York Magazine’s The Cut.
Though she didn’t specify who else was part of the group, French was close with Meghan Trainor, Duff, Moore and other Hollywood moms.
“I remember being left out of a couple of group hangs, and I knew about them because Instagram made sure it fed me every single photo and Instagram Story,” the High School Musical alum wrote. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me. … I told myself it was all in my head, and it wasn’t a big deal. And yet, I could sense a growing distance between me and the other members of the group, who seemed to not even care that I wasn’t around much.”
After another group outing took place without her, French decided to bow out, sending a text admitting the situation felt “too high school for me.”
“To be clear, I have never considered the moms to be bad people. (Maybe one.),” she continued. “But I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive — for me, anyway.”
Social media users later noticed that French unfollowed Moore and Duff on Instagram, but a rep for French shut down rumors that the essay was referring to them.
As the internet continued to speculate, Trainor, 32, was the first mom to break her silence on the fallout. “Me finding out about the apparent mom group drama,” she wrote in a TikTok video shared in January while sitting at a desk and typing on a computer.
Trainor set the video to her song “Still Don’t Care,” adding three tea emojis in the caption.
Her husband, Daryl Sabara, was next to chime in. “No drama over here, just trying to keep the kids happy,” he told TMZ, referring to his and Trainor’s two sons, Riley, 4, and Barry, 2. (Trainor and Sabara, 33, welcomed their third baby, daughter Mikey, in January via surrogate.)
Sabara admitted that he didn’t “really know what’s going on” but said he hoped French was OK.
As for Duff and Moore, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that they felt “blindsided” by French’s essay.
“From their perspective, they believed the group was supportive and coming from a good place, and they never thought there was any bad intent behind how things played out,” the insider explained.
According to the source, the group felt “unfairly portrayed” by what French described. “The moms insist there was no ‘mean girl’ behavior and say they were genuinely trying to be there for one another during a really vulnerable time in all of their lives,” the source continued.
A second insider clarified that “friendships naturally changed” within the mom group, with some of the women becoming “closer” with each other over time.
“They felt like she made a bigger deal out of everything. The tension largely came from what the group saw as a clash in priorities and values,” the second source told Us. “There were a lot of bonding moments Ashley felt she missed out on.”
As the heat died down over the controversy, a separate source told Us in late January, “The moms remaining in the group wish Ashley no ill will.”
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