Crystal Kung Minkoff knows what it’s like to get “dropped” by a group of friends.
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum, who famously revealed she lost “14 friends” after joining the reality show in 2021’s Season 11, is weighing in on Ashley Tisdale’s “toxic” mom group drama.
“I know probably 70 percent of the mom group because [our kids] all went to preschool together … and one [of the moms] went to the same high school as us,” Minkoff, 42, explained on her “Humble Brag” podcast Monday, noting that she was going to be “broader” about her commentary on the subject to “protect people’s privacy.”
Though Minkoff, who left “RHOBH” after 2024’s Season 13, is not a member of the star-studded mom group in question — which includes Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor — she is familiar with Tisdale’s position.
Earlier this month, the actress, 40, penned an essay for The Cut titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group.” In it, she described feeling “not cool enough” after being excluded from some of the group’s hangouts, eventually prompting her to step away from those friendships.
“Ashley’s story was that she left the group, and my story is I didn’t leave the group,” Minkoff claimed on her podcast. “I did the show — and I did a whole episode about this, so it’s not untold — but I did the show, and they all went against me and dropped me.”
After Tisdale’s essay went viral and she began getting “heat” for publicizing the fallout, her publicist insisted that her client was referring to a different mom group. However, Minkoff stated emphatically, “I know it’s the group,” after other stars — including Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, also spoke out.
While Minkoff acknowledged that “it’s hard to always include everybody,” she doesn’t think Tisdale was reading the situation incorrectly. “You know if you’re being pushed out,” she said.
The former Bravolebrity — who shares son Max, 13, and daughter Zoe, 10, with husband Rob Minkoff — admitted that she messaged one of the moms in Tisdale’s former group following the media frenzy.
“I was like, ‘I gotta know what’s going on.’ And they were like, ‘It’s so ironic that we’re the toxic ones, and she’s on her own,’” Crystal recalled without naming the mom.
“But I was like, ‘I understand [because] I was on my own.’ And so it made me think. I’ve done a lot of thinking the last [few] days.”
Crystal has “mixed feelings” about the ordeal because she can sympathize with Tisdale but has known “super sweet” Duff for a decade.
“Like, I cannot see her being a mean girl like that, but it’s dynamic, right? It’s dynamic. And so I feel for Ashley, obviously,” Crystal shared, elaborating, “I feel for everybody [involved]. And it’s also weirdly inevitable.”
Though part of Crystal doesn’t understand why the “High School Musical” star made her issues public, she believes it started an “important conversation.”
“Everyone has gone through this on some level,” she argued, adding, “Ashley’s article brought me back to that time … and it’s like, ‘What was all that for?’ I put so much effort, so much stress wanting to be part of something I’m not part of anymore, and I don’t care anymore.”
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