Hilary Duff keeps her best friends close.
Duff, 38, gave fans a peek inside her tight-knit friend group during an episode of Harper Bazaar’s “Burning Questions” YouTube series on Thursday, March 5. In the video, she was asked, “What early 2000s trend needs to stay in the past?”
Duff replied, “MySpace Top 8,” noting the trend allowed users to rank their closest friends. “That is so problematic,” she laughed. “No one needs to know how you’re rearranging your friend group or that you’re off — stay in the past.”
A producer then wondered who would be Duff’s “No. 1” friend right now.
“I can’t answer that!” Duff said while shaking her head. “Honestly, I have a top eight and they’re all equally valuable players.”
Duff’s remarks come after Ashley Tisdale French claimed she was part of a “toxic” group of mom friends — which fans quickly theorized Duff and other celebrity moms were part of.
In an essay written for New York Magazine’s The Cut, titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” Tisdale French, 40, recalled being “left out of a couple of group hangs” and feeling “distance” between herself and other members of the group.
Eventually, Tisdale French texted the group, “This is too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.”
Last month, Duff addressed the drama on an episode of “Call Her Daddy,” telling host Alex Cooper that she felt “sad” that people were trying to “connect dots” to her.
“I felt really sad. I honestly felt really sad,” she said. “I was pretty, pretty taken aback and felt just sad. I have so many groups of friends. I’m so lucky.”
The Lizzie McGuire actress added, “I have my core group of friends who have been my ride or dies for 20 years … I have tons of different groups of mom friends because I have four kids.”
“It sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of six women and all of their lives,” Duff continued.
Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, previously poked fun at Tisdale French’s article via Instagram. “A mom group tell-all through a father’s eyes,” he wrote in January, sharing a mock version of the magazine cover. “When you’re the most self obsessed tone deaf person on earth, other moms tend to shift focus to their actual toddlers.” (Duff and Koma share daughters Banks, 7, Mae, 4, and Townes, 22 months. She’s also the mom of son Luca, 13, whom she shares with ex Mike Comrie.)
Duff claimed on “Call Her Daddy” that she did not know he was going to comment on the matter.
“Honestly, everything he does makes me laugh. So, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Oh my God.’ But I also don’t censor him and I don’t tell him what he can and can’t post,” she said. “He is so fierce for me and I love him for that.”
