EXCLUSIVE: Reese Witherspoon Admits She 'Had to Rewire' Her Brain After Being in an Abusive Relationship That 'Diminished Her Spirit' — 'It Took Me a While to Reconstitute Myself'
Reese Witherspoon has revealed she had to rewire her brain after an abusive relationship that broke her spirit.
Oct. 29 2025, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
Reese Witherspoon has said an abusive relationship "diminished her spirit," and she had to fight hard to regain her self-confidence, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
But not only did she go on to win an Oscar, she founded a production company, Hello Sunshine, that she sold for almost a billion dollars in 2021.
Moving Past The Hurt
Reese Witherspoon reflected on overcoming an abusive past that once shattered her confidence.
"I'm a different person now," the Walk the Line star, 49, said. "And it's part of the reason I can stand up and say, 'Yes, I'm ambitious.' Because someone tried to take that from me."
She added: "You get into relationships that don't work for you, and sometimes you don't even see the dynamics that are happening. When I got out of that, it took me a while to reconstitute myself ... I thought all those awful things that person said about me were true. I had to rewire my brain."
Although the Morning Show alum doesn't identify the significant other, she was married to Ryan Phillippe from 1999 to 2007.
They share daughter Ava, 26, and son Deacon, 21.
Her second marriage, to former agent Jim Toth, the father of her son Tennessee, lasted from 2011 until 2023. She's been dating German businessman Oliver Haarmann since summer 2024.
The star revealed in a 2018 magazine interview that the ex was psychologically and verbally abusive.
But at one point, "A line got drawn in the sand and it got crossed, and my brain just switched," she said.
Finding Her Courage
Witherspoon said leaving an abusive relationship was the turning point that fueled her future success.
"That's when she got the courage to leave. 'I knew it was going to be very difficult, but I just couldn't go any further,'" she explained.
She now recognizes that it was the key to her incredible future success and explained: "I could never be the person I am today ... It changed who I was on a cellular level, the fact that I stood up for myself."
Protecting Her Kids
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The 'Morning Show' star opened up about the challenges of being hounded by paparazzi while raising her children.
The experience also gave her the strength she needed to deal with being a paparazzi target.
"It's really hard with people taking pictures of you like you're an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children," she said.
"And being a mom and wanting to protect young people is hard."
