Reese Witherspoon gets honest about her journey of overcoming a toxic and abusive relationship.
The Morning Show star reflected on healing through her messy relationship in a candid interview with The New York Times’ The Interview podcast.
“It took me a while to reconstitute myself,” said the 49-year-old.
Reese told NYT, “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.”
The Legally Blonde actress, who shares two children with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe as well as one son with former husband Jim Toth, revealed that she started focusing her self-improvement while navigating life in the limelight.
“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,” she continued.
Reese noted that people “get into relationships that don’t work for you, and sometimes you don’t even see the dynamics that are happening”.
Reese, who didn’t identify her allegedly abusive ex, explained that it took her a while to be “this woman that I am now”.
The Sweet Home Alabama actress also expressed regrets on living in LA after divorce particularly if one is a celebrity.
“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 remarked.
Reese pointed out that it’s nearly impossible at this point with everybody “dehumanising 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”.
Elsewhere in the interview, The Wild actress mentioned about parenting children while going through divorce pain.
“There was so much I didn’t know… Maybe that naïveté was good because it’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll just do that and have a career.’ But this is going to be really hard on your career. There were roles I couldn’t take,” added Reese.
