Reese Witherspoon Once Blamed Her Divorce on Poor Career Choices
Reese Witherspoon was married to Ryan Phillipe for seven years before finalizing their divorce in 2008. And according to Witherspoon herself, the end of their marriage had an unexpected side effect on her career.
Reese Witherspoon had a difficult time with her career after her divorce from Ryan Phillippe
Witherspoon and Phillippe dated for one year before getting married in 1999. It might’ve been love at first sight for Witherspoon, who charmed her future husband when he attended her 21st birthday party.
“I don’t know what came over me — maybe the seven Midori sours — but I told him, ‘I think you’re my birthday present,’ ” she once told Jane (via Metro). “He thought it was so flattering and now that I think about it … how embarrassing!”
When they divorced, however, the two were pretty coy on the details. There were rumors floating around that Phillippe cheated on Witherspoon with his Stop-Loss co-star Abbie Cornish. Phillippe also faced gossip that he was jealous of his ex-wife’s fame and success. But the Lincoln Lawyer star asserted there was more to their divorce than that.
“I certainly understand the level of interest that comes along with a public marriage, and with being married to someone like Reese, who so many people love with good reason. People want answers,” Phillippe once told W (People). “But I think sometimes they wouldn’t be happy with what the answers would be.”
But the divorce wasn’t easy for the former couple to bounce back from. Phillippe confided that he could barely function during that time period.
“There were a good four or five months of not being able to get out of bed. It was the worst time in my life,” he said.
Meanwhile, Witherspoon went through a severe career slump as a result of her divorce.
“You know, you can’t really be very creative when you feel like your brain is scrambled eggs,” Witherspoon once told 60 Minutes (via Contact Music). “I was just kind of floundering career-wise cause I wasn’t making things I was passionate about, I was just kinda working. It was really clear the audiences weren’t responding to anything I was putting out there.”
Perhaps the lowest point in the actor’s career came when she was categorized as a washed up actor in an article by The New Yorker.
“I thought I was reading a profile on another actor, and somewhere at the end it said, you know, the people who are washed up, and at the end it included me, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson,” she said. “It really hurt my feelings, really hurt my feelings.”
Why Reese Witherspoon’s divorce from second husband Jim Toth was more authentic
After Phillippe, Witherspoon would then marry talent agent Jim Toth. The two met in 2010, and would marry a year later at a backstage ceremony. Her marriage with Toth also added new perspective to her divorce from Phillippe.
“I was hard on myself when I got divorced. And until I got remarried, I don’t think I realized how stressed I was,” Witherspoon once told Marie Claire. “I feel so much relief. I don’t think I recognized how anxious I was about being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It’s not easy on anybody.”
Although her marriage with Toth lasted long, Witherspoon’s relationship would also come to an end. The pair would divorce in 2023, but the Legally Blonde star took their separation a lot better than her break-up with Phillippe.
“When I was divorced before, the tabloid media got to tell people how I was feeling or how I was processing, and it felt very out of control,” Witherspoon said in a 2023 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“To be able to talk to people directly about what’s going on in my life and just share it in the way that I share great professional experiences or personal experiences, it feels much more authentic to be able to say things in my own voice and not let somebody else control what’s happening,” she added. “Then, of course, there’s speculation, but I can’t control that. All I can do is be my most honest, forthright self and be vulnerable.”
