Just when you thought the mum group drama that overtook our feeds had subsided, Ashley Tisdale went ahead and hung out with Hilary Duff’s estranged sister, Haylie Duff.
The latest escalation in this all-out war comes weeks after Ashley penned a scathing essay about a former group of friends, widely believed to include Hilary, as well as Meghan Trainor and Mandy Moore.
Since then, there’s been input from Hilary’s husband, cryptic TikToks, and sources spilling the beans, but Ashely’s latest move takes things to a new level.
The High School Musical star was spotted with Haylie when the pair took their kids on a playdate. Haylie shared a pic of her daughter, Lulu, hanging out under a table right next to Ashley’s daughter, Jupiter — I guess because all the other planets were taken.
“Under table shenanigans,” Haylie captioned the snap, which Ashley then reshared on her own Instagram Stories.
In case you’re not chronically online, this is significant for a few reasons.
For starters, Hilary and Haylie are infamously estranged, and their longtime feud has resurfaced in the weeks since Ashley’s essay was published.
There’s many theories about the source of their sisterly rift — with some putting it down to opposing politics and others claiming Haylie is not fond of Hilary’s husband, Matthew Koma — but it was given new life when Haylie endorsed a post about Ashley’s essay earlier this month.
Haylie was caught ‘liking’ an Instagram post where the user reshared Ashley’s essay with the caption, “LEAVE YOUR TOXIC FRIENDS BEHIND”.
That coming amidst renewed interest in the Duff feud seemed to signal exactly where Haylie stood, and her recent Ashley hang-out is the cherry on top of this irresistibly petty mess.
For what it’s worth, Haylie and Ashley do have some shared history beyond getting under Hilary’s skin via playdates. Ashley sold her Los Angeles home to Haylie back in 2016, so it’s not as if their recent friendliness is completely out of the blue.
Still, the timing of it all is suspect, particularly since Hilary only just unveiled a song called “We Don’t Talk” that is widely speculated to be about her spat with Haylie.
If this seeming tit-for-tat by way of songs and playdates continues, we’ll still be discussing this scandal in 2056.
And best believe I’ll be in the old folks home and that my final words will be “mum group drama”.
Lead images: Instagram and Getty Images
