Reese Witherspoon is opening up about the painful aftermath of a past abusive relationship.
The actress, 49, opened up about her earlier love life in a recent appearance on The Interview podcast from The New York Times on Saturday.
“You get into relationships that don’t work for you, and sometimes you don’t even see the dynamics that are happening,” the Legally Blonde star said.
“When I got out of that, it took me a while to reconstitute myself. 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.”
Though she’s long since moved on and is now dating German financier Oliver Haarmann, the actress took a shot at paparazzi for meddling with her privacy.
“It took me a long time to be this woman that I am now. It’s nearly impossible at this point, with everybody dehumanising you, taking pictures of you like you’re an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children."
"It was really hard, and being a mom and wanting to protect young people is hard too.”
In 2018, the Sweet Home Alabama star recalled the moment she decided to walk away from a psychologically and verbally abusive partner.
“A line got drawn in the sand and it got crossed, and my brain just switched. I knew it was going to be very difficult, but I just couldn’t go any further. It changed who I was on a cellular level,” she told O, The Oprah Magazine.
Witherspoon was previously married to talent agent Jim Toth from 2011 to 2023—with whom she welcomed her youngest son, Tennessee James Toth—and Ryan Phillippe, with whom she shares daughter Ava, 26, and son Deacon, 21.