Ashley Tisdale’s Husband Christopher French Talks ‘Toxic Mom’ Drama & Supporting Her ‘Without Getting Involved’

Ashley Tisdale‘s husband, Christopher French, is by her side through any type of drama that might come up in their lives, toxic mom group or otherwise.

In an on-camera interview with Page Six published Wednesday (Sept. 30), the musician opened up about how he and the High School Musical actress are faring these days, nine months after Tisdale published her polarizing The Cut essay about “breaking up” with her “toxic” circle of mom friends. At the time, the internet was abuzz with the realization that the group in question included other stars such as Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor and Mandy Moore.

“We’re doing fine, thank you for asking,” French began. “I will say I have no problem supporting my wife completely and her ability to deal with her own interpersonal relationships in whatever way feels right for her, without getting involved or feeling like I have to speak for her.”

“She’s a really smart chick,” he continued. “She’s a very capable person, which is really what made it so hard … speaking about our own experiences in general, it can be really hard to navigate that stuff.”

The update comes a few months after July’s announcement that Tisdale had partnered with Netflix to turn her friend-group troubles into a TV series, about which she wrote at the time: “I guess we all can be a little toxic.” The show is described as a “dark half-hour comedy following a sleep-deprived new mom who’s drawn into a clique of cool, wealthy mothers” who eventually reveal their “darker side.”

It’s unclear how closely the show, titled Toxic Moms, will follow the Suite Life of Zack & Cody alum’s essay, or if the ensuing fallout will play a role in the plot. In real life, Tisdale wrote about feeling “left out” and like she was “back in high school” due to her allegedly exclusionary mom friends at the time, and — after fans called attention to the fact that she’d abruptly stopped appearing in photos with former pals Duff, Trainor and Moore, making them the likely subjects of the article — many of those women spoke out in response.

“I don’t really think people had to connect very many dots, do you?” the Lizzie McGuire singer-actress said on Call Her Daddy in February of how easy it was for Tisdale’s readers to trace things back to her. “It sucks to read something that’s not true, and it sucks on behalf of, like, six women and all of their lives … the timing felt not great, and I felt used.”

“I’m someone who is really scared by confrontation,” Moore later said on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live. “But also when it’s important, I am a huge proponent [of] having a conversation if my feelings are hurt. Face-to-face. It’s not always the most comfortable of situations, but I think that’s where I sort of differed in feeling like I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way.”

Tisdale and French got married in 2014. They share two daughters, 5-year-old Jupiter and 2-year-old Emerson.