Ashley Tisdale has denied that Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor were in the "mom group" she left after it became "toxic".
In an essay titled "Breaking Up with My Toxic Mum Group" published on The Cut on 1 January, the High School Musical actress opened up about quitting a group of fellow mums after it became "too high school" for her.
Many Internet sleuths claimed that Tisdale's group included fellow celebrity parents Moore, Duff and Trainor, considering that they have posted group photos in the past. They also noticed that the 40-year-old no longer followed Moore and Duff on Instagram.
Addressing the speculation, a representative for the former child star insisted to TMZ that there is zero truth in the claim that the This Is Us actress, Lizzie McGuire star and All About That Bass singer were in the group.
The rep added that it was unfortunate that the essay was twisted into clickbait as Tisdale, 40, simply wanted to shine a spotlight on a very real issue in mum circles.
In her essay, Tisdale recalled not being invited to certain group events and discovering that she'd been "left out" when she saw photos on Instagram afterwards.
"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? All of a sudden, I was in high school again, feeling totally lost as to what I was doing 'wrong' to be left out."
Recalling how she cut ties with them, Tisdale continued, "I texted to the group after being left out from yet another group hang: 'This is too high school for me and I don't want to take part in it anymore.' It didn't exactly go over well."
She added, "To be clear, I have never considered the moms to be bad people (maybe one) but I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive - for me anyway."
Tisdale shares daughter Jupiter, four, and son Emerson, 16 months, with her husband Christopher French.
