Hilary Duff Has Spoken…Again

For the first time in our 19-year history, Jezebel spoke too soon. During a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hilary Duff appeared to brush off the entire Ashley Tisdale Toxic Mom Group saga, and we figured that was that. Duff seemed to suggest that Tisdale’s essay barely fazed her, and while I, personally, felt bummed to be closing the book on one of my favorite celeb dramas in recent memory, I accepted that if Duff moved on, I had to, as well. 

But on Wednesday, Duff appeared on Call Her Daddy and had more to say about it to Alex Cooper, so we’re back, baby. 

“I felt really sad. I honestly felt really sad,” Duff said of her initial reaction to The Cut essay. “I was, like, pretty, pretty taken aback and felt just, like, sad.” She continued: “So I think I just was like, ‘Woah.’ It sucks to read something that’s, like, not true. And it sucks on behalf of, like, six women in all of their lives.”

To recap: In January, Tisdale wrote an essay in The Cut about leaving her mom group because it was toxic and she was getting left out of hangs. She didn’t name names—though the group includes Duff, Mandy Moore, and Megan Trainor—but did seem to suggest that she considered at least one of the moms to be a bad person. 

Cooper brought up Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, who mocked Tisdale’s cover with his own Photoshopped version on Instagram. Duff said she had no idea he was going to post that. “Honestly, everything he does makes me laugh,” she said when Cooper asked how she felt about it. “So I was like, oh my god, but I also don’t censor him, and I don’t tell him what he can and can’t post. He is so, like, fierce for me, and I love him for that.” 

Cooper wrapped up by asking if there was anything else she wanted to clarify. Duff responded with a succinct, “No.”

But then she continued, praise be. 

“I think it came at the craziest time, where I was like—like the timing felt not great, and I felt used,” Duff said. 

“Like, would this have happened if you’d not had your big resurgence?” Cooper interpreted, to which Duff responded with a cheeky little confirming finger point. 

I fear (pray!) this could spark a follow-up essay.

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