Hilary Duff says she felt “hurt” and “used” after the explosion of “toxic mom group” speculation on social media.
As you may recall, Ashley Tisdale penned an essay for The Cut at the top of January titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group.” Social media chatter followed, with Duff among those speculated to have been a part of the group in question.
Asked about the moment during her appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, Duff, who recently released her first new album in over a decade, joked that people didn’t have to “connect very many dots.” She also reflected on her immediate feelings, pointing to a sadness both individual and collective.
“I felt really sad,” she said. “I honestly felt really sad. I was pretty taken aback and felt just sad. … I have so many groups of friends. I'm so lucky. Motherhood has brought on, like, I have my core group of friends who have been my ride- or-dies for 20 years, 10 to 20 years. And I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids, you know? So, I think I just was like, ‘Whoa.’ It sucks to read something that’s not true and it sucks on behalf of, like, six women and all of their lives.”
Duff was also asked about the decision of her husband, Matthew Koma, to speak out amid the post-essay drama. As previously reported, Koma, whose work is featured on Duff’s new album, took to Instagram to mock Tisdale, seemingly referring to her as “the most self-obsessed, tone-deaf person on Earth.”
Duff told Cooper she didn’t know Koma was going to speak out in that manner, but added that she does not “censor” such remarks or tell her husband “what he can and can’t post.” Koma, she explained, “is so fierce” for her.
“I love him for that,” she added.
Asked if there was anything about the “toxic mom group” drama that she wanted to clarify, Duff declined.
“I think it came at, like, the craziest time. … The timing felt not great,” she said. “And I felt used.”
Luck... or something—Duff’s first album since 2015’s Breathe In. Breathe Out.—finds the Lizzie McGuire alum reflecting on the emotional highs and lows of the chase for maturity. “Growing Up,” a key track, is built around an interpolation of blink-182’s 1997 hit “Dammit.”