Ashley Tisdale Shares Empowering Message Amid "Toxic" Mom Group Drama
Crystal Kung Minkoff is cosigning Ashley Tisdale’s perspective on difficult mom group dynamics.
After the Disney Channel alum’s personal essay where she detailed leaving a “toxic” mom group went viral, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum shared her experience as a fellow former member of the group.
“I know, probably, 70 percent of the mom group because we all went to preschool together,” Crystal shared during the Jan. 12 episode of her Humble Brag podcast. “We're all the same group.”
And Crystal admitted she found Ashley’s essay—which was published in The Cut Jan. 1—very “interesting,” considering she had gone through something similar, calling it “so 2021.”
“I don't want to give too much tea about it because it's their personal stuff,” the mom of two continued. “I already went through this.”
Crystal alleged that she felt ousted from the group after signing on to the Real Housewives franchise, which she was part of from 2021 to 2024.
“What I found interesting is that Ashley's story was that she left the group, and my story is I didn't leave the group,” Crystal recalled. “I did the show, and they just said—I did a whole episode about this so it's not untold—they all went against me and dropped me.”
But while she related to Ashley’s experience, the 42-year-old—who shares kids Max, 13, and Zoe, 10, with husband Rob Minkoff—admitted she wasn’t surprised the High School Musical alum was “getting all the heat.”
"I just wonder, what was she thinking was gonna happen?" Crystal admitted, noting that the women in the group are “so beloved.”
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She also emphasized that she did not know Ashley—who had previously shared glimpses of outings with celeb moms including Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor—and wasn’t trying to throw any of the women who remain in the group under the bus. “Someone like Hilary, I’ve known her for 10 years,” she explained. “Super sweet. I cannot see her being a mean girl like that, but it's [the] dynamic. So, I feel for Ashley.”
Indeed, Ashley’s essay has been the subject of a lot of conversation since it went up. For one, Hilary’s husband Matthew Koma slammed it on social media, parodying the title of it.
“When You’re The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers,” Matthew wrote. “A Mom Group Tell All Through A Father’s Eyes.”
Ashley isn’t the only star to voice a controversial take. For more eyebrow-raising celebrity confessions, keep reading…
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Jason Kelce Doesn't Regularly Wash His Feet
"What kind of weirdo washes their feet…." Jason Kelce tweeted in June 2024 after a fan noted the athlete "looks like he doesn't wash his legs or feet."
The retired Philadelphia Eagles player later doubled down on his comments.
"What kind of psychopath washes your feet?" he deadpanned on an episode of his and brother Travis Kelce's New Heights podcast, adding, "If there's visible dirt on them, I'll scrub the dirt off."
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Robert Pattinson Did Not Watch a Clown Die at the Circus
Over a decade after the Twilight star revealed that he saw a clown die in a car explosion during his first visit to the circus as a child, he admitted that wasn't true.
"There was absolutely no hesitation at all [in my voice]," Robert recalled to The New York Times Style Magazine in a December 2024 interview. "I'm like, 'What on earth? Are you possessed?'"
As for what he said during the 2011 Today interview promoting his film Water for Elephants?
"One of the clowns died," he explained at the time. "His little car exploded. The joke car exploded on him, seriously. Everybody ran out. It was terrifying."
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Kim Kardashian Reveals How She "Honored" Grandma MJ During Sex With Pete Davidson
Grandma knows best.
Kim Kardashian got candid about how her grandma Mary Jo "MJ" Campbell influenced one intimate moment between her and then-boyfriend Pete Davidson, during an October 2022 episode of The Kardashians.
"Pete and I were staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel last weekend, and we were sitting in front of the fireplace, just talking for hours," the SKIMS founder recounted to MJ, mom Kris Jenner and sister Khloe Kardashian. "And I was like, 'My grandma told me that you really live life when you have sex in front of the fireplace. And so, we had sex in front of the fireplace in honor of you."
Grandma's reaction? A nod of approval.
"How creepy to think about your grandma before you have sex?" Kim said, to which MJ replied, "I know, but I was younger once."
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Mila Kunis Reveals Why She and Ashton Kutcher Keep Bathrooms Doors Open at Home
The love shared in Mila Kunis and husband Ashton Kutcher's tight-knit family—which includes 8-year-old daughter Wyatt and 6-year-old son Dimitri—knows no boundaries.
So much so, that the Black Swan actress revealed they keep an open-door policy at home.
"That includes the bathroom," she told E! News in September 2022. "It's just one of those where, for better or for worse, as a family and the kids have all kind of embodied bodily function as a very standard norm."
Mila said she arrived at the decision after her family kept knocking on the door and asking to come in, which prompted her to oblige: "I was like, ‘Oh, forget it. Just keep the door open.'"
Pre-kids, she might not have imagined she'd flush that particular boundary away.
She added, "I'd never thought that I would be the person that was able to go to the bathroom with the door open."
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Joy Behar Admits She's "Had Sex With a Few Ghosts"
Ghouls just want to have fun.
As The View panelists were reviewing footage about a woman who alleged she had "sexual ghosts" in her home, Sara Haines asked the group an important question during an October 2022 episode: "If you have sex with a ghost, can you get pregnant?"
Fortunately for her, co-host Joy Behar had an answer, adding, "I've had sex with a few ghosts and never got pregnant."
"I'm just gonna let that ride," Whoopi Goldberg said in response. "I don't know how many of you just heard what Joy just said, but I'm going to let it ride."
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Jenna Bush Hager Explains Why She Doesn't Use Underwear
Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotab are a thick as thieves, though there is one thing Hoda didn't know about her Today co-host. When the pair were getting ready for an episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, Hoda discovered Jenna perpetually goes commando.
"We both had to change before the show and we were like, 'Oh we have to go back into the changing room,'" Hoda said during a November 2022 episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna. "But then I noticed, Jenna never wears underwear."
Jenna's rationale? Well, no underwear might just be more convenient to her.
"I think it makes a more pretty silhouette," she said. "I also think you don't have to pack as much. There are a lot of pros to it!"
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Britney Spears Reveals She Has "No Idea" Who Pete Davidson and Scott Disick are
Looks like someone hasn't been keeping up.
Britney Spears found herself embracing Keke Palmer's viral saying "he could be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing," when she admitted she didn't know who Pete Davidson and Scott Disick were.
Reposting a humorous March video of Pete—who was then dating Kim Kardashian—and Kourtney Kardashian's ex Scott enjoying a "boyz night," to her Instagram, Britney said the two of them had her cracking up.
"Sorry had to repost this," Britney wrote in the since-deleted post. "no idea who these people in the video are but it made me laugh so hard !!!!"
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Jana Kramer Explains Why "Asparagus Pee" Might've Lead To A Breakup With Chris Evans
Back before the world knew Chris Evans as Captain America and People's Sexiest Man Alive of 2022, Jana Kramer knew him as the "heartthrob, cutie" she went on a few dates with.
It happened more than a decade ago, the singer revealed on her Whine Down with Jana Kramer podcast in November, and though she can't remember "how many dates it was," she does recall their last encounter.
Jana, then about 26 years old, said Chris invited her over to his house while he had friends in town from Boston.
"The last interaction that I remember is him going into the bathroom after I just went with asparagus pee," Jana remembered, referencing the veggie's tendency to give urine a very distinct scent. "We didn't hook up that night. He stayed up late with his friends and then [in] the morning I did the asparagus walk of shame out of his house."
She added, "I never heard from him again."
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Former Grey's Anatomy Writer Elisabeth Finch Reveals She Lied About Having Cancer
Not all of these confessions are amusing.
Eight years after sharing in an ELLE article that she had been battling a rare type of bone cancer—her fake diagnosis even inspiring a storyline on Grey's Anatomy—show writer Elisabeth Finch admitted in December it was all a ruse.
"I told a lie when I was 34 years old and it was the biggest mistake of my life. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me," Elisabeth told The Ankler newsletter Dec. 7, adding, "I've never had any form of cancer."
Summed up Finch, who was placed on administrative leave from the ABC medical drama before eventually resigning, said, "What I did was wrong. Not okay. F--ked up. All the words."
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Kim Kardashian Admits—And Then Double Downs On—Why She Would "Eat Poop" to Look Younger
Beauty is pain, but Kim Kardashian might be able to stomach it.
Telling The New York Times the lengths she would go to for a more youthful appearance, the reality star cracked that she was willing to try just about anything.
"If you told me that I literally had to eat poop every single day and I would look younger, I might," she said in June. "I just might."
In a July 2022 interview with Allure, Kim said she was "kind of joking" about the comment, though the idea didn't seem too terrible.
"But now that I think about it," Kim added, "I would probably eat s--t if someone told me, ‘If you eat this bowl of poop every single day, you'll look younger.'"
How much could she make room for? "Maybe just a bite," she told the outlet. "I don't think I can do a whole bowl."
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Jelly Roll Admits He Once Pooped His Pants Onstage
Jelly Roll could’ve used some saving from himself.
The “Save Me” singer was asked about his most embarrassing moment during an April 2025 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show—and he definitely didn’t hold anything back.
“I pooped myself one time,” he admitted. “I did, I’m sorry.”
But to be fair, Jelly Roll (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) didn’t expect to deal such a lethal blow.
“I was confident it was all air,” he insisted. “I'm so sorry. I watched this crowd go from loving me to just being completely out.”
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