Mandy Moore is reflecting on changing friendships as she tackles motherhood.
Appearing on the January 14 episode of Conversations With Cam podcast, she asked host Cameron Rogers, “Do you feel like you have seen friendships, sort of, take a different course?”
The This Is Us star, 41, who shares sons August, 4, and Oscar, 3, and daughter Louise, 15 months, with husband Taylor Goldsmith, added, “I have friends who have kids that are older, and I have found that the people I’m closest with in my life right now are people who are at the same chapter of their lives as parents. Like, we have kids the same age. I’ve had to sort of mourn in a way, not the loss of those friendships, but how they’ve changed.”
Rogers acknowledged that it’s normal for moms with kids of the same ages to become friends.
“I have friends who have kids the exact same age as mine. I have friends who have kids that are older. … The reality is, you’re going to be more in contact with people who are your [kids’] exact age,” said the host.
The Tangled star confessed that the change in friendship dynamics after becoming a mom “caught me off guard.”
“I’ve been surprised by it, I just assumed all of these relationships would continue to … not that they don’t serve me, but, they wouldn’t be the first people I would reach out to right now when I’m like, ‘Gus has changed his mind seven times about what he wants to be for Halloween,'” she shared.
Moore’s comments come after she got dragged into a mom group drama, which started with Ashley Tisdale French’s article in The Cut.
Ashley wrote in her essay that she felt left out by the group, which was formed of women who became moms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Online sleuths figured out that Tisdale was in a mom group with Moore, Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor, and more.
Moore went on to confirm that the group was formed amid the pandemic, saying, “So, I think the origin story is all kind of having pandemic babies,” Moore said on the podcast. “Hilary Duff is a very dear friend of mine. She and her husband, Matt [Koma], are very close with me and Taylor, my husband. [Duff’s daughter] Mae-Mae was born six weeks after Gus, and she is the ultimate mom. She has four kids now, but at the time, Mae was her third. She was a boss. She was just like, ‘We need a music class. We need community.’ So she started this music class at her house and gathered a group of incredible women, and I brought a few into the fold as well.”