Freeing Meghan Trainor from Toxic Mom Jail

Your Honor, she wasn’t even in the group chat!

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Freeing Meghan Trainor from Toxic Mom Jail

The smoke is finally clearing from the Great Toxic Mom Scandal of Yore, aka when Ashley Tisdale wrote an essay for The Cut titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” in January. In the essay, Tisdale alleged that she was iced out of her friend group of affluent SoCal moms and ultimately walked away because it felt “too high school.” Other members of the so-called “toxic mom group” include Meghan Trainor, Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, and, by extension, Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, who came back swinging after the essay dropped, referring to Tisdale as “the most self-obsessed tone deaf person on Earth.”

After months of idling in toxic mom-limbo, Trainor is finally coming forward with her side of the story, which is…that there is no other side to the story. After Tisdale’s essay initially blew up, Trainor posted a TikTok with the caption, “me finding out about the apparent mom group drama.” Trainor is now further clarifying that she and Tisdale were never on bad terms, and in fact, she never really hung out with these moms to begin with.

“I was a bad mom friend.” Trainor told Us Weekly, “I never went. They had so many events; they were awesome and always there for each other. There was a group chat, but eventually they started a group chat without me because I wasn’t there… and that was totally fine. I didn’t feel bad.” Your Honor, she wasn’t even in the group chat!

“I felt bad for Ashley, that she was ever that sad. I think it was just a lot of miscommunication and confusion. I don’t really know what happened, but I wish them all the best,” she said. “Ashley texted me, ‘I’m sorry, your name got dragged in.” And I was like, “It’s all right, girl. The world’s a silly, crazy place, and they just want something to talk about.” Well, what else would we talk about besides toxic mom drama? 

In her essay, Tisdale called out one mom in particular, “To be clear, I never considered the moms to be bad people. (Maybe one.)” Tisdale wrote, but who was the “maybe one”? 

Some suspected Duff, given her husband’s flagrant response and the falling out she had with her sister, Haylie Duff, who “liked” Tisdale’s post on Instagram. When asked about the essay on an episode of Call Her Daddy, Hillary said, “I was pretty taken aback and felt just sad.”

“It sucks to read something that’s not true,” she added, “and it sucks on behalf of, like, six women and all of their lives.”

So I guess we’ll never know who the maybe bad one in this group was, but Meghan, you’re free to go. Again, she wasn’t even in the group chat!


  • Olivia Rodrigo and Cameron Winter of Geese were caught on a date. [TMZ]
  • Madonna announces Confessions II. Whoa. Something just shifted. [Rolling Stone]
  • The White Lotus Season 4 will follow hotel guests and employees during the Cannes Film Festival. [Variety]
  • Brianna Chickenfry has entered the chat. [PageSix]
  • Prince Harry never wanted to work the job that “killed his mom.” [TMZ]
  • Channing Tatum is now following Manon from KATSEYE on Instagram…[PopCrave]

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