Originally appeared on E! Online.
Matthew Koma isn’t afraid to come clean with his thoughts.
Hilary Duff’s husband clapped back after Ashley Tisdale French penned an essay for The Cut slamming what she dubbed her “toxic” former mom friend group — which many fans suspected to include Duff, as well as celebs Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. (Tisdale’s rep has denied their involvement.)
Taking to his Instagram Story on Jan. 6, Koma — who shares three daughters with Duff, in addition to her 13-year-old son Luca with ex Mike Comrie — created a fake magazine cover image, writing, “Read my new interview with @thecut.”
The title? “When You’re The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers,” accompanied by the subheading, “A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father’s Eyes.”
E! News has reached out to Tisdale’s rep for comment but has not yet heard back.
In Tisdale’s Jan. 1 essay, “The Suite Life” alum — who is mom to kids Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 16 months, with husband Christopher French — detailed how she’d initially thought she’d found her “village” in the group of moms, before things took a turn when their children grew to playdate age.
READ: Ashley Tisdale’s rep addresses claim Mandy Moore and Hilary Duff were in ‘toxic mom’ group
“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,” Tisdale wrote. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me.”
And while she initially tried not to “take things personally,” she eventually grew to feel the exclusion was intentional.
“Here I was sitting alone one night after getting my daughter to bed, thinking, ‘Maybe I’m not cool enough,’” she recalled. “All of a sudden, I was in high school again, feeling totally lost as to what I was doing ‘wrong’ to be left out.”
Which is exactly why Tisdale — noting she hoped her daughters would advocate for themselves in a similar way — texted the group upon her exit, “This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
Despite some of the group offering what Tisdale dubbed ingenuine apologies, sharing they hadn’t realized she’d been excluded, the “High School Musical” star stood firm in her decision to remove herself from the inner circle. As for why she decided to share her experience?
“Motherhood has enough challenges without having to wonder if the people around you are on your side,” Tisdale explained. “You deserve to go through motherhood with people who actually, you know, like you. And if you have to wonder if they do, here’s the hard-earned lesson I hope you’ll take to heart: It’s not the right group for you. Even if it looks like they’re having the best time on Instagram.”
Following the essay’s publication, fans speculated whether Duff, Moore and Trainor had been part of the group, as Tisdale had previously shared glimpses of time spent with the fellow celeb moms.
Her rep, however, soon set the record straight, denying the rumors to TMZ and expressing it was unfortunate that Tisdale’s essay — which sought to bring attention to issues facing young moms — had been twisted that way.
Ashley Tisdale sparked a flurry of rumors in the new year with an essay published in “The Cut,” titled “Breaking Up with My Toxic Mom Group.”
