Kaley Cuoco is sharing her two cents on Ashley Tisdale French’s “toxic mom group” drama.
Appearing on the Thursday, February 5 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the Big Bang Theory alum was asked via a fan question whether she had any thoughts on the viral parenting saga.
“I mean, if you don’t like being part of a group, just leave, baby,” Cuoco, 40, replied. “Do we have to talk about it?”
When host Cohen, 57, referenced Tisdale French’s The Cut essay and Substack post, both of which slammed her mom group, Cuoco doubled down on her belief that the public discourse surrounding the whole situation was unnecessary.
“You don’t have to do that. Just leave,” the actress, who shares daughter Matilda, 2, with Tom Pelphrey, said. Cuoco added, “Find a new group.”
In January, Tisdale French, 40, caused a stir when she exposed the dynamics of her mom group in a personal essay written for The Cut. In the piece, she called out the group as “toxic” and revealed she had ultimately quit it after feeling ostracized.
She did not mention any of the other moms involved by name, but Tisdale French frequently documented playdates with celebrities such as Meghan Trainor, Mandy Moore and Hilary Duff, each of whom have young children.
“I remember being left out of a couple of group hangs, and I knew about them because Instagram made sure it fed me every single photo and Instagram Story,” Tisdale French wrote. “I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me. … I told myself it was all in my head, and it wasn’t a big deal. And yet, I could sense a growing distance between me and the other members of the group, who seemed to not even care that I wasn’t around much.”
Tisdale French described parting ways with the other mom by texting the group that it felt “too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
After fans pointed the finger at the famous mom group as being the one Tisdale French was referencing in the essay, her representative denied the speculation.
However, when Duff’s husband Matthew Coma, 38, uploaded a post mocking Tisdale French’s essay, it further fueled the fire and indicated that it was the celebrity group that included the Lizze Maguire star that Tisdale French had been talking about.
In his Instagram post, Coma took a swipe at the High School Musical star by sharing a fictional version of the article in The Cut.
“A mom group tell-all through a father’s eyes,” Koma’s article read. “When you’re the most self obsessed tone deaf person on earth, other moms tend to shift focus to their actual toddlers.”
Meanwhile, Cuoco is part of her own mom group. Following the headline-making drama surrounding Tisdale French’s mom group, Cuoco’s mom friends celebrated their own close connection.
“Mom groups are having a real moment on the interweb this week. Shoutout to my village, without whom I could be very lost and lonely,” Cuoco’s friend Ashley Jones wrote via Instagram on January 7, alongside several photos of their mom squad. “Tag your supportive ride or die mom group!”
