Watch: Ryan Phillippe Makes Rare Comment About Ex Reese WitherspoonReese Witherspoon has lived and she's learned. Indeed, the Morning Show star detailed the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship when she was "really young," including the insecurity and lack of confidence that followed-though it didn't necessarily show on the surface. "I was very good at being a professional and showing up and doing the right thing, but I wasn't emotionally mature when I was young," Reese recalled during a Sept. 20 episode of The New York Times' The Interview podcast. "You get into relationships that don't work for you, and sometimes you don't even see the dynamics that are happening." And though she did eventually get out of the unhealthy relationship, Reese was left with a distorted perception of herself. "It took me a while to reconstitute myself," the 49-year-old continued. "My spirit had been diminished because I thought all those awful things that person said about me were true. I had to rewire my brain."photosReese Witherspoon's Confirmed and Rumored Dating HistorySince then, Reese-who shares daughter Ava, 26, and son Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe as well as son Tennessee, 13, with ex-husband Jim Toth-has had time to focus on herself and her healing while navigating life in the public eye. "It took me a long time to be this woman that I am now," she explained to host Lulu Garcia-Navarro. "It's very hard to be a public figure." "I have a lot of compassion for people who live public lives and maintain privacy," she continued. "It's nearly impossible at this point with everybody dehumanizing you in a certain way, taking pictures of you like you're an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children or having a private moment."Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty ImagesThe Legally Blonde star's latest comments come seven years after she first got candid about how leaving an abusive relationship that involved both "psychological" and "verbal" abuse ultimately allowed her to fulfill her destiny. "I drew a line in the sand, and it got crossed, and my brain just switched," she told Oprah Winfrey in the March 2018 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. "I couldn't go any further. I was really young, and it was profound." Without delving into the specific details, Reese explained, "It changed who I was on a cellular level, the fact that I stood up for myself. It's part of the reason I can stand up and say, 'Yes, I'm ambitious.' Because someone tried to take that from me." For more about Reese and her rise to fame, keep reading...
Elliott Marks/Mgm/Kobal1. She was born Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon in 1976 in New Orleans. Reese is actually her mother Betty's maiden name. 2. She is a claimed descendant of John Witherspoon, one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, though that claim has not been verified by the Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence genealogists. 3. Her father Dr. John Draper Witherspoon served as a lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve and, as result, Reese spent four years of her childhood living in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Ron Galella/WireImage4. Growing up a dedicated student who loved reading, she earned the nickname "Little Miss Type A" from her parents. She would later launch her own production company with a title that nodded to the moniker, Type A. In a 2005 profile with Interview, however, she clarified the title choice, saying, "It was actually an in-joke with my family because at [age] 7 I understood complicated medical terms, such as the difference between type A and type B personalities. But I just wished I'd named the company Dogfood Films or Fork or something. You carry that baggage all your life." 5. Her first acting gig came at age 7, when she selected as a model for a florist's commercials. It inspired her to take acting lessons. 6. In 1991, she attended an open casting call for the film The Man in the Moon, intending to audition as a bit player. Instead, she landed the lead role of Dani Trant, the 14-year-old girl who falls in love for the first time with her 17-year-old neighbor. In her debut, she was nominated for Best Young Actress at that year's Young Artist Awards.
Melissa Moseley/Columbia/Kobal7. Despite making her acting debut at 14, she maintained good enough grades to get accepted to Stanford University as an English literature major, but she withdrew after a year to pursue her burgeoning acting career. 8. Reese met her first husband, Ryan Phillippe, when a mutual friend brought him along to her 21st birthday party in 1997. As she told People in 2002, she told him at the end of the night, "I think you're my present." 9. After filming the cult classic Cruel Intentions, which was released in 1999, Phillippe proposed to his girlfriend in December 1998 with a homemade breakfast-in-bed meal of waffles with strawberries and cream. They tied the knot in Charleston, South Carolina on June 5, 1999. Their daughter Ava was born three m