Actress opens up about her painful divorce in candid interview

Reese Witherspoon has not spoken much about her divorce from Ryan Phillipe in 2006 but now, in a rare interview, she has opened up about their painful split.

The actress, who stars in Wild – which comes to Irish cinemas in January – spoke to 60 Minutes about her divorce, saying she spent a lot of time crying afterwards: “I lay on the kitchen floor and cried a lot and I think at a certain point you just wake up and you’re like, ‘OK, I don’t want to feel like this anymore.’ And you figure your own sh** out.”

Reese also opened up honestly about the effect her divorce from the father of her two children had on her career, only one year after winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 2006 for her role in Walk The Line: “Phew, that was a tough year that followed. I got divorced the next year and I spent a few years just trying to feel better. You know, you can’t really be creative when you feel like your brain is scrambled eggs.”

She was left heartbroken when she discovered herself in a list of “washed-up” celebrities in a 2012 New Yorker piece: “I thought I was reading a profile on another actor, and somewhere at the end it said, you know, the people that are washed up, and at the end of it included me, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson. It really hurt my feelings, really hurt my feelings.”

Thankfully, the actress’ career is back on the rise with rave reviews for her behind-the-scenes input on David Fincher’s Gone Girl, as well as taking on the lead role in Wild. 

Reese is now married to Jim Toth with whom she has a son, Tennessee, as well as being a mum to 15-year-old Ava and 12-year-old Deacon with ex-husband Ryan Phillipe.