Dylan Efron Shows Support for Ashley Tisdale amid ‘Toxic’ Mom Group Drama

Dylan Efron is showing his support for Ashley Tisdale French amid the ongoing drama surrounding her “toxic” mom group.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Wednesday, Jan. 21, Dylan — the brother of Tisdale French’s High School Musical costar Zac Efron  —  defended Tisdale French, 40, and said that he “couldn’t envision” the actress doing “anything malicious.”

“I try to stay out of that, so I don’t know too much,” Dylan, 33, said when questioned by a fan about the drama during a call-in segment. “All I know is, Ashley, since I was a kid, she’s been so sweet to me.”

“So I can’t envision her doing anything malicious to the mom group,” he continued. “Hopefully, it’s just a misunderstanding? I honestly don’t know what’s going on, though.”

Host Andy Cohen then interjected, “It seems, like, maybe more than a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah, it is,” Dylan said through a grimaced smile, before doubling down on his lack of knowledge around the conversation. 

“I honestly don’t know what happened. All I can say is she’s been so sweet,” The Traitors star added.

Dylan then noted how Tisdale French had come to watch him compete on the latest season of Dancing with the Stars, on which he was a finalist.

“She came to Dancing with the Stars to support me. Like, I can’t see where this drama would come from,” he said.

Earlier this month, Tisdale French caused a stir when her essay for The Cut — titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group”  — went viral. 

The mom of two first opened up about the topic in a blog post titled “You’re Allowed to Leave Your Mom Group” in December 2025.

In her essay expanding on the topic, Tisdale French wrote that the group was “too high school” to remain a part of and that it felt like “mean” girls. 

“When I became a mom, I craved connection almost as much as I craved sleep. So I did what a lot of us do. I joined a mom group,” Tisdale French, who is mom to daughters Jupiter Iris and Emerson Clover, wrote in her December blog post. “But here’s the thing nobody prepared me for: Mom groups can turn toxic. Not because the moms themselves are toxic people, but because the dynamic shifts into an ugly place with mean-girl behavior. I know this from personal experience.”

“In my mom group, I started to notice that certain people would get talked about when they weren’t present, and not in a positive way,” Tisdale French continued. “I realized that there were group text chains that didn’t include everyone, which led to cliques forming within the larger group. And after the third or fourth time of seeing social media photos of everyone else at a hangout that I didn’t get invited to, it felt like I wasn’t really part of the group after all.”

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While Tisdale French did not name the members of her former mom group in either her blog post or The Cut essay, fans were quick to speculate that she was referring to her former group of celebrity mom friends, including Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor, Gaby Dalkin and others.

Trainor — who recently announced she welcomed her third baby, a daughter named Mikey, on Jan. 18 — broke her silence on the situation earlier this month. 

Joking about the moment learned about the drama, the singer, 32, shared a TikTok video with the words, “Me finding out about the apparent mom group drama,” written across it. 

In the clip, Trainor could be seen typing at a computer and looking animatedly at her screen, appearing shocked. The video was set to her new track, “Still Don’t Care,” from her upcoming album Toy with Me.

“☕️☕️☕️ #stilldontcare,” Trainor, who shares her three children with husband Daryl Sabara, wrote in the caption.