Christopher French says he and his wife, Ashley Tisdale, are unshaken by the backlash to her viral toxic mom group essay. Christopher French, host of the “Recovering” podcast, told Page Six in an exclusive interview published Sept. 30 that he fully supports how the “High School Musical” star handled the split from her former friends.
Christopher French: ‘We’re doing fine’
“We’re doing fine,” French, 44, told Page Six. “She’s a super smart, capable person, and she knows what she’s doing and that’s part of what I love about her.”
Christopher French said he has no problem backing his wife “completely” in managing her own relationships as she sees fit, without stepping in or speaking for her. He said he does not feel the need to get involved in her friendships. He also pointed to how difficult the situation was for her. “She’s a really smart chick. She’s a very capable person, which is really what made it so hard,” he said. “We are very private, but in speaking to something that really matters to her.”
What Tisdale’s toxic mom group essay said
Ashley Tisdale, 41, wrote “Breaking Up with My Toxic Mom Group” for The Cut in January. In it, she described cutting off a circle of mothers she had befriended after her first daughter was born in 2021. She accused the group of “mean girl behavior,” said she’d been excluded from plans and felt betrayed, and wrote that she left the group chat with a text reading, “This is too high school for me,” Page Six recapped.
Tisdale never named the women, but fans speculated that Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor were in the group. Duff, 38, pushed back on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in February. “It sucks to read something that’s, like, not true,” she said, per Page Six.
Moore addressed the toxic mom group essay in May on SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live,” saying that anyone suggesting she isn’t a kind person was “very upsetting.” She also pushed back on the idea that women are naturally petty with one another and said the friendships she has made since becoming a mother have been meaningful, NBC reported.
Christopher French on postpartum depression
Tisdale kept a low profile for months after the essay was published but recently appeared on French’s podcast, where she spoke openly about postpartum depression. French, who has been sober for nearly 20 years, said some of what people go through simply isn’t logical. “Whether it’s emotional stuff, or speaking about our own experiences in general. It can be really hard to know how to navigate that stuff,” he told Page Six.
The couple married in 2014 and have two daughters, Jupiter, 5, and Emerson, 2.
‘Toxic Moms’ comedy in the works at Netflix
Tisdale is also turning the toxic mom group essay into a TV project. Netflix is developing “Toxic Moms,” a half-hour comedy that Tisdale will executive produce and is expected to star in, TVLine reported in July. Sabrina Jalees is writing the series, and Ali Wong is an executive producer who could direct if it moves forward. The show follows an exhausted new mother who joins a clique of stylish, wealthy moms, only to find the group has a darker side, per TVLine. The project has not received a series order.
Read our earlier coverage of Tisdale’s response to the toxic mom group rumors and Hilary Duff’s return to TV and music, or browse more celebrity news.
Reporting from Page Six, TVLine and NBC contributed to this story.
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