Reese Witherspoon’s success in entertainment has shown through her best movies and TV shows, as well as her own production company, Hello Sunshine. However, success in Hollywood doesn’t come without stress when the paparazzi get involved. Even though she and ex Ryan Phillippe’s kids, Ava and Deacon, are now adults in their 20s, Witherspoon recalls not having fond memories of the media “banging on the door” after her divorce.
Cruel Intentions co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, who got married in 1999 and had two children, officially got divorced in 2007 with joint custody of their kids. Their reasoning for the split was due to "irreconcilable differences,” with rumors at the time saying that Phillippe reportedly had an affair with actress Abbie Cornish.
While Witherspoon spoke to The NY Times about her and actress Jennifer Garner trying to protect their kids from the media, the Walk the Line actress shared not-so-fond memories of the paparazzi “banging on the door” and scaring her children during this tough time in everyone’s lives. I’ve gotta say that her story has left me shaken:
I remember at church once in L.A., a guy jumping on the hood of the car and on each side, three people pushing against the window banging on the door when my kids were little after I got a divorce and chasing us like it was a police chase, down the freeways. It was terrifying. It was really hard on my kids. Anxiety-producing. I really regret living in L.A. during that time. I know it feels like they’re just taking pictures, but it would be like 25 people on the side of the soccer field photographing me and Ryan to see if we got along or we didn’t get along. And there’s a little boy and a little girl there.
I can’t even imagine how terrible that must have been for the whole family to experience. Parents getting a divorce is already a vulnerable time. Based on Reese Witherspoon’s claims, the paparazzi interference would just be adding fuel to the fire, with no care about respecting children’s privacy.
Ryan Phillippe previously said in 2022 that people would try to pit him against the Just Like Heaven actress back when they were married, making it seem like he was jealous of his then-wife’s success. This speculation could have been due to the 2002 Oscars stage moment when Phillippe allowed Witherspoon to read the winner, saying, “You make more money than I do. Go ahead.” Despite the media’s twist on that moment, the Crash actor described himself as “pro-woman,” proving how the media can inaccurately shape the narrative.
Witherspoon continued to express sympathy to other celebrities chased down by the media, like Britney Spears, who she felt was portrayed as the “bad girl” compared to a young mom trying to raise her kids as best as she could. Reese Witherspoon continued to get real about how she tried to protect her own kids from the paparazzi, and it sounds like no picnic:
My kids had really bad anxiety. And it was all external. You can only shield them from so much, but when they can go to the playgrounds and are on the schoolyard, it feels like the world is chaos and there are no rules. They would yell things at the kids about their dad or me, that were wildly inappropriate.
To say what a tough situation that was for Reese Witherspoon’s kids would be a real understatement. Considering that all Ava and Deacon Phillippe were trying to do was live a normal childhood, the paparazzi certainly weren't helping.
Even as an adult, Ava Phillippe had her battles with internet commenters discussing her body. But considering what a warrior she has for a mother, who has always advocated for women, the UC Berkeley graduate had no problems doing the same thing against social media negativity.
Divorce is not a black-and-white issue. Witherspoon continued to be honest about how the media chose only to portray sensational moments they could capture compared to the full extent of what the family went through:
These videos exist. And then they would only show the one part where I was screaming back at them, going, ‘Get back in your cars, leave us alone.’ I’m not trying to garner sympathy. It was my life. I just didn’t know that was what would come with wanting to be an actor. That’s why when social media emerged, Jennifer Garner and I got on the phone and we were like, ‘Oh, my God, we can decide when people have pictures of our kids? Sign me up.’
Jennifer Garner definitely knows what it’s like for her and her children to be under the radar of the press after her divorce from Ben Affleck in 2017. So I can imagine how freeing it must have felt for her and Reese Witherspoon to use social media to take back control and post their own family photos instead of being at the mercy of the tabloids.
Fortunately, celebrity parents like Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry refused to let the paparazzi continue to exploit their children’s lives. As reported by The LA Times in 2013, the two A-listers testified before Congress to enact SB 606—an anti-harassment law to make it a misdemeanor to attempt to photograph or film the child of a celebrity in a “harassing manner.”
The new law was enacted in January 2014, with the first offense penalty being up to one year in jail and a fine not exceeding $10,000. With a law like this, celebrity parents can rest assured that their children can be protected from unwanted footage.
Reese Witherspoon may not have forgotten about the paparazzi “banging on the door” after her divorce from Ryan Phillippe. At the same time, her two children are now grown adults taking control of their lives, with Deacon venturing into acting and Ava taking on modeling and having a social media presence. With SB 606 in effect, the children of famous parents hopefully won’t have to deal with the anxiety of the tabloids like Witherspoon and Garner’s children did.
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