Hilary Duff Takes Her Group Chat to Mexico Months After Saying She Felt 'Used' by Drama

Hilary Duff's circle of friends got their girls' trip out of the group chat. The singer shared a glimpse of her Mexico getaway with Mandy Moore, Gaby Dalkin and several other friends, including photos of beaches, poolside fun and games of mahjong.

The vacation comes nine months after Ashley Tisdale's essay about leaving a 'toxic' mum group that fans speculated involved Duff's circle. Duff pushed back on the rumour, saying she felt hurt by being involved in the controversy. Now, they seem to be pivoting into posts about a much brighter time in their group.

Hilary Duff Posts a Candid Look at Her Mexico Girl's Trip

Duff posted a carousel from the trip on Saturday, 10 October, showing the group enjoying One&Only Mandarina in Mexico's Riviera Nayarit. 'The group chat made it to the jungle,' she captioned the photos.

The luxury resort sits on a coastal rainforest, in which the lush greenery decorated the backdrop of the photos alongside their beach escape.

Duff was pictured wearing a yellow one-piece swimsuit in multiple photos, which included her sipping a drink from a coconut, as well as her joining a game of mahjong.

Along with Moore and Dalkin, Duff was accompanied by make-up artist Kelsey Deenihan Fisher, skincare expert Whitney Wagner Hartley, artist Amanda Lillywhite, Better Babies founder Janice Gott and influencer Haylee Christine.

Dalkin had given her followers a peek at the trip a day before Duff's post, sharing a video of the group jumping into a pool together.

'Girlfriends who go on at least one trip per year have a much longer lifespan, according to a study we just made up,' she joked on 9 October.

After clarifying the supposed research was part of the gag, she summed up the vacation in her caption. 'Turns out we never outgrow sleepovers, we just start calling them girls trips. One for the record books.'

Ashley Tisdale's Essay on 'A Toxic Mom Group' Had Hilary Duff Feeling 'Used'

The drama surrounding Hilary Duff's group began in January, when Ashley Tisdale wrote an essay for New York Magazine's The Cut titled 'Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group'. The actress, who shares two children with husband Christopher French, described feeling excluded from a circle of fellow mums. She alleged that she had been 'left out of a couple of group hangs' and eventually felt 'frozen out'.

'I told myself it was all in my head, and it wasn't a big deal,' said Tisdale. 'And yet, I could sense a growing distance between me and the other members of the group.'

Tisdale did not identify the women in her essay, but fans dug through her old Instagram posts and began speculating that she had been speaking about her experiences with Duff's circle of friends.

Duff, a mother of four, recently addressed the speculation in her February appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. She told host Alex Cooper that she was 'really sad' and 'pretty taken aback'.

'It sucks to read something that's not true, and it sucks on behalf of six women and all of their lives,' she said.

She said the timing of the news 'felt not great', as she had planned to release her comeback album Luck... or Something when the rumours about her group became a hot topic. 'I felt used,' she said.

Despite this, her friends kept supporting her on her Lucky Me tour prior to the Mexico trip. Dalkin attended her concert in Los Angeles on 10 July, posting, 'Stage mom-ing so hard!!! We love you @hilaryduff.'

Moore reposted the concert content while adding her own message of support. 'I love my fwwwweeennnsss,' she wrote. 'Delivering the degree of joy to 18K people is literally superhero level. We love you and are grateful you are back doing what you're born to do!!'

Regardless of the gossip directed towards them, Duff and her friends continue to be there for each other.