When you’ve spent decades in the public eye, you get used to people dissecting your choices. But Mandy Moore discovered this week that there’s a difference between tabloid scrutiny and having your character questioned in print by someone you thought was in your circle.
During an appearance on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show Radio Andy on Monday, May 18, the 42-year-old actress addressed Ashley Tisdale French’s viral essay for The Cut titled“Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,”which earlier this year detailed feeling excluded from her mom friend group. While French never named names in the piece, social media quickly connected the dots to her well-known circle that’s historically included Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, Meghan Trainor and others. French’s spokesperson later denied they were the friends in question—though the timing and specificity left plenty of room for interpretation.
Moore’s reaction wasn’t defensive posturing. Instead, she homed in on something deeper: the insinuation that she might not be the kind person she’s built her identity around.“The most important thing in my life is being a kind person and like that legacy of kindness, and anyone even insinuating that that might not be the case, and with the company that I choose to keep is very upsetting,”she explained on air. It’s the kind of comment that cuts past celebrity gossip into something genuinely personal—a wound that hits harder because it touches your sense of self.
What’s interesting here is that Moore didn’t fire back with her own essay or veiled Instagram post. Instead, she reflected on a broader frustration: the persistence of the tired trope that women in the same space can’t support each other.“I think the biggest takeaway from that whole ridiculous debacle is that I feel like it just sort of perpetuates this silly trope that women can’t be supportive of one another and that we’re inherently petty and that we’re inherently out to one-up each other,”she said. It’s a fair point. The mom group drama narrative, whether rooted in reality or not, feeds into exactly the kind of divisive stereotype that women in Hollywood—or anywhere—have been fighting against for decades.
Moore went further, sharing that her own experience as a parent has been the opposite of petty. Finding community and support among other parents and moms has been one of the most meaningful parts of parenthood for her. She prefers face-to-face conversations when hurt by something, not public airing of grievances.“I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way,”she reflected, suggesting that the public nature of French’s essay felt out of step with how she personally navigates conflict.
The whole situation illustrates something worth thinking about: in an age where everyone can broadcast their side of a story instantly, sometimes the relationships that survive are the ones where people still choose the harder path of direct conversation. That takes more courage than publishing an essay, even a well-written one.
About the Author
Ava Hart
Ava Hart is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
