Mandy Moore reunited with former This Is Us cast mates in her first public appearance following the “toxic” mom drama sparked by Ashley Tisdale French’s essay.
Moore, 41, attended a “That Was Us” event at Los Angeles, California’s The Wiltern on Saturday, January 17, that saw her join former cast mates Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan record a live episode of their “That Was Us” podcast.
In addition to Moore, Brown, 49, and Sullivan, 45, recording a show for fans, Moore also performed a musical number, per social media footage from the event shared via Instagram one day later.
Moore’s public outing comes after Us Weekly revealed on January 8 that the “I Wanna Be With You” hitmaker felt “blindsided” over the release of French’s now-viral essay about ditching a mom group widely believed to have included Moore, Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor and other new parents.
The actress and singer took to her Instagram Stories on Sunday, January 18, to reflect on her night out, sharing a photo of two children soaring through the air while secured in a playground swing set. “Late night but full heart,” Moore, who shares three children with husband Taylor Goldsmith, sons Gus, 4, and Ozzie, 3, and daughter Louise, 17 months, captioned the post. “Thanks to everyone who came to our show at @thewiltern.”
She also shared an image of herself with makeup being applied to her cheeks ahead of her on-stage appearance.
French’s essay for The Cut first made headlines on January 1. While it did not include any names of former mom friends, French, 40, wrote about feeling excluded by a group of women in California. (French shares daughters Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 17 months, with husband Christopher French.)
The essay read in part, “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. I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me.”
A source exclusively told Us on January 8 that both Moore and Duff, 38, felt “hurt” by French’s words. (Duff, 38, shares three daughters, Banks, 7, Mae, 4, and Townes, 8 months, with husband Matthew Koma, as well as a son, Luca, 13, with ex-husband Mike Comrie.)
“From their perspective, they believed the group was supportive and coming from a good place, and they never thought there was any bad intent behind how things played out,” the insider told Us at the time before adding that the former friends felt that “issues that could’ve been handled privately were instead made public,” and as a result, the moms felt “unfairly portrayed.”
The source noted, “The moms insist there was no ‘mean girl’ behavior and say they were genuinely trying to be there for one another during a really vulnerable time in all of their lives.”
In the days following the essay’s release, French’s rep told TMZ that the High School Musical star’s words were “twisted” and the piece did not refer to Moore, Duff, or Trainor, 32.
Hower Koma, 38, added fuel to the fire by sharing a fake article of his own via Instagram Stories that mimicked French’s work for The Cut. “A mom group tell-all through a father’s eyes,” his January 6 Instagram Story began. “When you’re the most self obsessed tone deaf person on earth, other moms tend to shift focus to their actual toddlers.”
Two days later, Moore praised Koma as a “generous” friend before stating, “Love you, MB!!” which referred to Koma’s real name, Matthew Blair.
