Watch: Mandy Moore Breaks Silence on Ashley Tisdale’s Toxic Mom Group Essay
This is Mandy Moore looking back at her marriage to Ryan Adams.
Indeed, the This Is Us alum made a rare comment about the “Come Pick Me Up” singer while recalling how her now-husband Taylor Goldsmith had asked her father for her hand in marriage before their 2017 engagement. Mandy, 42, said her dad was impressed by Taylor’s heartfelt gesture.
“I had been betrothed before, but that person did not ask my father,” she shared on the May 19 episode of the That Was Us podcast, which she co-hosts with her former costars Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan. “So I think my dad was very touched that it was done in the traditional way. My dad appreciates that.”
“But I believe he also is super awkward,” Mandy continued. “He was like, ‘Oh gosh, you don’t have to ask for my permission!’ As Taylor recounted it to me.”
Mandy married Ryan in 2009 after two years of dating. The pair split nearly six years later and their divorce was finalized in 2016.
While the A Walk to Remember actress did not mention Ryan by name in the podcast, she’s been open about her past relationship with the music producer—both personal and professional.
“I felt like I was drowning,” she shared during a 2019 appearance on Marc Maron‘s WTF podcast. “It was so untenable and unsustainable and it was so lonely. I was so sad. I was so lonely with him. I knew that this wasn’t the rest of my life. I knew that this wasn’t the person I was supposed to be with, I knew that I wasn’t the person I was meant to be.”
That same year, Mandy—along with a group of other women in music—spoke out against Ryan, discussing how the music producer impacted their careers and his alleged use of manipulation.
“Music was a point of control for him,” she said in a New York Times interview. “He would always tell me, ‘You’re not a real musician, because you don’t play an instrument.'”
Mandy added, “His controlling behavior essentially did block my ability to make new connections in the industry during a very pivotal and potentially lucrative time—my entire mid-to-late 20s.”
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Though Ryan initially denied the allegations at the time, he later issued an apology for his actions.
“There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I’ve mistreated people throughout my life and career,” he wrote in a 2020 letter. “All I can say is that I’m sorry. It’s that simple. This period of isolation and reflection made me realize that I needed to make significant changes in my life.”
As for Mandy, she became a mom after marrying Taylor in 2018. The couple are parents to sons Gus, 5, and Ozzie, 3, as well as daughter Lou, 20 months, with Mandy often singing her praises over the Dawes frontman’s parenting skills.
“Super dad, super husband, super partner. He does all the things and I’m so grateful. Entertaining two active toddlers and working like crazy,” she wrote in a 2024 Instagram post, “while I stay home with Lou is a rather exhausting feat and you make it look so easy. Can’t imagine doing this with anyone else. Thank goodness for you, T.”
For a deeper look into the couple’s family life, read on.
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