Originally appeared on E! Online
Ashley Tisdale is not bopping with this drama.
A rep for the “High School Musical” alum denied rumors that her recent essay detailing her experience with a “toxic mom group” was about her friendship with fellow moms Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor, telling TMZ Jan. 5 it was unfortunate Ashley’s words had been twisted in that way.
As Tisdale’s’s rep explained, the 40-year-old penned the essay in the hopes of putting focus on the issues facing some mom circles, pulling from her own experiences of being shut out of her friend group in a way that made her feel like she was right back in high school.
E! News has reached out to Tisdale’s rep but has not heard back yet.
The Disney Channel star — who shares kids Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 16 months, with husband Christopher French — shared in the personal piece that when she first met her former mom group she was “certain that I’d found my village.”
READ: Ashley Tisdale Reveals Why She’s Publicly Changing Her Name
“But over time,” she wrote in the essay for The Cut published Jan, 1, “I began to wonder whether that was really true.”
The Frenshe founder — who now goes by Ashley French — didn’t call out anyone in the group by name, although she had previously shared a look at her hangouts with Duff, Moore, and Trainor.
She wrote that she was so “impressed” by the people in her mom group “and all of the amazing things they had going on,” but the dynamic went South when she found that she was being excluded from mom hangouts.
“At first, I tried not to take things personally,” Tisdale explained. “It’s not like people aren’t allowed to get together without me — and maybe there were perfectly good reasons that I hadn’t been invited. We were all busy, life was hectic. I told myself it was all in my head and it wasn’t a big deal.”
But the experience made her feel ill at ease.
“Here I was sitting alone one night after getting my daughter to bed, thinking, ‘Maybe I’m not cool enough,’” Tisdale 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.”
“This is too high school for me,” she said she texted the group, “and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
However, she said her exit from the group didn’t go over well, with some moms offering insincere apologies and others saying they didn’t know why she was being left out.
“Motherhood has enough challenges without having to wonder if the people around you are on your side,” Tisdale concluded. “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.”