Years ago, moms everywhere grew up watching Hilary Duff and Ashley Tisdale as Disney Channel favorites. Now, both women are navigating parenthood themselves — a world where the drama among fellow moms can be far more complicated than anything seen in Lizzie McGuire or High School Musical.
This reality came into focus when Tisdale, writing under her married name Ashley French, published an essay with The Cut explaining why she distanced herself from what she described as a “toxic” group of moms she had once considered friends. Speculation quickly arose online about whether Duff was part of that circle — and that’s when Hilary Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, takes aim at Ashley Tisdale’s essay criticizing ‘toxic’ mom groups, calling it ‘tone deaf.’
On Tuesday, Koma shared a parody on his Instagram Story, mocking Tisdale’s essay. The post included a spoof image of Koma recreating the photo of Tisdale sitting cross-legged that accompanied her piece. The fake headline read, “When You’re The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers.”
A tongue-in-cheek sub-headline added, “A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father’s Eyes,” with Koma captioning the post: “Read my new interview with @TheCut.”
Billboard has reached out to Tisdale’s representatives for comment.
Koma, who married Duff in 2019, shares three children with her. His post appeared just five days after Tisdale’s essay was published, in which she recounted forming friendships with other working moms only to feel deliberately excluded from certain events and gatherings.
“Even though it had been decades since tenth grade, the experience of being left out felt so similar,” Tisdale wrote. “I knew that I had to speak up for myself, just like I would want my daughters to do. So that’s exactly what 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.’”
Fans quickly analyzed old photos of Tisdale and Duff together, attempting to link them to a broader mom group that reportedly included Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. However, TMZ reported Monday that Tisdale’s representatives denied that any of these women were referenced in her essay.