Reese Witherspoon ‘grieved’ her eldest children when they left home for college.
The 49-year-old actress was full of tears when her daughter Ava, 26, and her son Deacon, 21 – who she shares with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe – went away to study.
Reese made the admission on the latest episode of the New York Times‘ The Interview podcast, and told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro: ‘I grieved their going to college, and I cried in their rooms.
‘One year, one of them didn’t come home for Christmas, and I sat in their bed and just cried.’
The Morning Show star said she felt a ‘loss’ because the kids were not around.
Reese – who is also mom to her 12-year-old son, Tennessee, whom she has with her 55-year-old ex-husband Jim Toth – explained: ‘It’s a loss because you do everything for them.
Reese Witherspoon ‘grieved’ her eldest children when they left home for college
The 49-year-old actress was full of tears when her daughter Ava, 26, and her son Deacon, 21 – who she shares with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe – went away to study. She also has son Tennessee with ex Jim Toth
‘You take the food out of your mouth, the coat off your back. You don’t sleep.
‘You don’t sleep because you’re either taking care of their physical needs when they’re little. Or when they’re older, you’re just so worried all the time that they’re gonna get in a car accident or they’re gonna come home or there’s gonna be drugs involved.’
But the Legally Blonde star accepted the fact that her children have to grow up.
Reese added: ‘You just have every worry the parents have, you know? And then one day, it’s kind of like, if you’ve done your job, you did the right things, they go.
‘It makes me teary right now. It’s just really hard. But you know you did the right things.’
Elsewhere in the podcast, Reese also shared that Ava and Deacon have become ‘incredible friends’ to her since they moved out of the family home.
The Big Little Lies actress explained: ‘Ava will call me and just be like a great friend, Deacon calls me all the time, we hang out in New York, and he’ll tell me about cool restaurants, and I’ll be like, “Great. Can you get a reservation?” Cause he can get better reservations than I can now!
‘But it’s awesome to have your kids become adults.’
Reese made the admission on the latest episode of the New York Times ‘ The Interview podcast, and told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro: ‘I grieved their going to college, and I cried in their rooms’; seen in 2024
‘One year, one of them didn’t come home for Christmas , and I sat in their bed and just cried,’ she added
This comes after she said she parents her youngest child differently from her elder children.
The Wild actress takes a calmer approach to being a mom to son Tennessee because her daughter Ava and her son Deacon, ‘wore me out.’
Reese made the admission on the latest episode of the New York Times’ The Interview podcast. She said these days she is ‘exhausted, wrung out and tired.’
‘And whenever I lose my cool, I turn to my youngest and I go, “You got to call your brother and sister. They wore me out. I’m so tired. Like eat the cookie, go to bed late, just do it. But like, think about how it’s going to make you feel.”‘
She added, ‘I’ve been parenting for 25 years.’
Elsewhere in the podcast episode – titled How Reese Witherspoon Figured Out Who She Really Is – the star revealed the guidance she gave to Ava as she follows in her mom’s footsteps in becoming a Hollywood star.
The Morning Show star said she felt a ‘loss’ because the kids were not around. Reese explained: ‘It’s a loss because you do everything for them.’ Seen in January
Jennifer Aniston and Witherspoon attend The Morning Show season 4 New York premiere on September 9
Speaking about her eldest child – who made her acting debut in the ABC medical drama Doctor Odyssey earlier this year – Reese said: ‘Well, it’s interesting because last year, she turned 25.
‘And when I was 25, she was a year and a half old, and I’d just done Legally Blonde. And I was about to start Sweet Home Alabama.
‘We are just living very different life existences, realities. And I’m so proud of her for not being anything but herself. Not trying to emulate me or be me.
‘You know what I’m saying? Not trying to approximate my career or… Ava’s just cool. She’s just always been cool. Some people are just boring cool. She was just boring cool.
‘But part of the challenge of being a mother of a 26-year-old woman is learning to back away, learning she doesn’t need me in the same ways, and that’s okay. And soothing my heart when I feel, like, rejected a little bit.
‘But it’s not a rejection. It’s actually her … people in my life remind me the alternative would be worse – if she was just so needy, needy, needy. She’s not needy like that. I’m just really proud of who she’s become as an individual.’
