The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Crystal Kung Minkoff is clarifying the details of her relationship with Ashley Tisdale French’s former mom group after her comments on the viral drama earlier this year.
“That was not my mom group. I know people in the group, but that is not my crew, because that group was based on their younger kids, like their little … you know,” Minkoff, 43, exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping at the Reality TV Greats dinner hosted by Threads and Dear Media at Alba in West Hollywood on March 18.
Kung Minkoff, who shares son Max, 13, and daughter Zoe, 11, with husband Rob Minkoff, added that she would “hear little snippets of what was happening” in the group.
Tisdale French, 40, made headlines in January when she published an essay for New York Magazine’s The Cut about parting ways with her “toxic mom group.” She claimed that she felt excluded from the group, comparing the situation to high school, and ultimately “broke up” with her former friends in a group text.
“I feel for both sides, which actually helps me really give perspective about my situation when I lost some friends,” Kung Minkoff continued. “But I also think that there’s friendships that last forever, and there’s some friendships that are seasonal, and that’s also OK. Maybe when you have kids in preschool vs. elementary, it was just time. And I think it was time for them.”
Kung Minkoff previously shared that she had a falling out with multiple friends when she joined RHOBH in 2021.
Kung Minkoff, who left the show in 2024, gave an update on those friendships in an interview with Us.
“Some have apologized, but now I just see too much, and I can be friendly, but I don’t need enemies,” she explained. “I don’t really like that energy for me, but I will never be friends with them again. Never. I don’t care what happens, no.”
Kung Minkoff weighed in on Tisdale French’s mom group drama shortly after the Disney Channel alum published her essay, revealing that she knows “70 percent” of the women in the group because they “all went to preschool together.” However, she noted that it was not really her “group” and was not connected to the friends she lost in 2021.
“Ashley’s getting 90 percent hate,” Kung Minkoff said on her “Humble Brag” podcast, comparing Tisdale French’s situation to her own. “I kept mine private. I didn’t want anyone to know. It all came from other sources.”
Kung Minkoff told Us that mom group drama is very “real” and “crosses so many places.”
“Wherever you live, whatever socioeconomic anything, people deal with these kinds of issues with women and moms and friends, and like I said, it can be seasonal,” she explained. “You just have to stick to your own values, and you’ll find those people. And sometimes your values can change. And that’s also OK. And so you just got to ride the wave.”
