Dylan Efron, who was best known as the brother of High School Musical star Zac Efron before winning The Traitors in the US, has weighed in on Ashley Tisdale’s mom group drama
Ashely Tisdale has received support from a Traitors star (Image: Getty Images)
Dylan Efron has thrown support at Ashley Tisdale amid her “toxic mom group” drama. The reality star, 33, whose older brother Zac Efron famously starred opposite Ashley in the Disney Channel’s runaway hit High School Musical, spoke out after the actress published an essay in which she alleged that she had fallen out with a group of celebrity moms she once considered close friends.
In the essay, Ashley, who has daughters Jupiter, four, and fourth-month-old Emmerson with her husband Christopher French, wrote in The Cut that she initially thought she had “found her village” with the group before it all went wrong and she started to feel left out when she found out on Instagram that they had been meeting up without her.
She said: “Another time, at one of the mom’s dinner parties, I realized where I sat with her — which was at the end of the table, far from the rest of the women. I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me.
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“At first, I tried not to take things personally. It’s not like people aren’t allowed to get together without me — and maybe there were perfectly good reasons that I hadn’t been invited.”
Now, Traitors star Dylan, who would have been in his early teens when his brother found fame, has insisted that he just tries to “stay out” of it all, but because he has known Ashley for so long, he simply cannot imagine her “doing anything malicious” to warrant this kind of fallout.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Dylan told Andy Cohen: “I try to stay out of that, so I don’t know too much. 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. Hopefully, it’s just a misunderstanding? I honestly don’t know what’s going on, though.”
Andy replied: “It seems, like, maybe more than a misunderstanding,” before Dylan added: ” honestly don’t know what happened. All I can say is she’s been so sweet.” In High School Musical, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, Ashley starred as drama club queen Sharpay Evans, whilst Zac starred as basketball captain Troy Bolton.
They reprised their roles for two more films, and the format was then retooled into High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which made stars out of Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett over the course of its four-season run.
In the 2000s, Ashley was also known for starring as Maddie Fitzpatrick on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, around the same time Miley Cyrus found global success with fellow Disney sitcom Hannah Montana, and Raven-Symone headed up That’s So Raven for the network.
Meanwhile, Dylan has found fame in his own right in recent years, mostly in the field of reality television, having won the third season of the US version of The Traitors and then gone on to compete on Dancing with the Stars.
Ashley, who had previously spoken of her friendship with Lizzie McGuire star Hilary Duff and pop star Meghan Trainor, amongst others, wrote in her essay: “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 behaviour. I know this from personal experience.
“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..
“Another time, at one of the mom’s dinner parties, I realised where I sat with her, which was at the end of the table, far from the rest of the women. I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me.”
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