Reese Witherspoon has opened up about her experiences battling postnatal depression (PND) in her early 20s and the symptoms of menopause in her late 40s.
The actress, 49, is set to receive the Cultural Icon award at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2025, appearing on the cover of the December/January issue to talk through her life and career.
The Oscar winner explained how she had struggled with the effects of both PND and menopause, but that like many women, she had felt pressure to suffer in silence.
Reese is mother to Ava, 26, and Deacon, 21, with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and shares son Tennessee, 12, with ex Jim Toth.
She recalled how she ‘cried all the time’ following the birth of her first child Ava when she was just 23 years old, before Legally Blonde made her a household name.
Reese explained: ‘It was really bad. In the first six months, I was simultaneously happy and depressed. I just cried all the time, I was up all night, I was exhausted.
Reese Witherspoon has gotten candid about her experiences battling post-natal depression (PND) in her early 20s and the symptoms of menopause in her late 40s
The Oscar winner explained how she had struggled with the effects of both PND and menopause, but that like many women, she had felt pressure to suffer in silence (seen in 1999 when pregnant with first child)
‘It was a hormone drop I didn’t expect, which I experienced right after birth and again when I stopped nursing six months later.’
Explaining why she felt pressure to keep her struggles private, she added: ‘Everyone has an opinion. It’s hard being a young mom and having people tell you how to be, how to react, how to give birth, how to nurse and how to feed your baby. It’s inundating.
She is set to receive the Cultural Icon award at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2025, appearing on the cover of the December/January issue to talk through her life and career
‘I had the connections and the means to get to a doctor, a mental-health specialist, but a lot of people don’t. They struggle on their own and hide it.’
The Wild star also got candid about her experiences with menopause, detailing how she suffered with brain fog and memory lapses.
Explaining how women helped each other through it, Reese commended fellow actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Watts for speaking out about their own symptoms, as it ‘normalised’ the condition.
‘I’ll say the wrong word or the wrong name with extreme confidence. We all go through it and have to be patient with each other. I’m always grateful for women who normalise it – like Gwyneth and Naomi Watts. I benefit from the research they do.’
Gwyneth, 53, has been open about menopause in interview and with her wellness brand, Goop, while also being an angel investor in Evernow – a wellness start-up that provides menopause treatment.
While in 2022, Naomi, 56, started beauty and wellness brand, Stripes, to provide skincare, body care, hair care, and supplements for women going through menopause.
Reese is mother to Ava, 26, and Deacon, 21, with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and shares son Tennessee, 12, with ex Jim Toth (all three pictured)
She recalled how she ‘cried all the time’ following the birth of her first child Ava when she was just 23 years old (seen on set of Legally Blonde in 2000 with Ava and Ryan)
The Wild star also got candid about her experiences with menopause, detailing how she suffered with brain fog and memory lapses
And earlier this year, the Impossible star released a book about her experiences of menopause, that aimed at challenging the stigma older women face in Hollywood.
Writing in Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, she explained how she started experiencing symptoms at just 36, but was that revealing she was menopausal would be ‘career suicide’.
Naomi said she decided to write the book after coming to the realisation that there ‘is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants’ and reveald other celebrities now message her about the condition.
She said: ‘One of the funniest things that’s happened as a result – random celebrities now text me regularly to tell me they’re in menopause.
‘It’s like I’m behind the confessional window or I’m Hollywood’s agony aunt. I was craving information on menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was breathing a word about it.
‘We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?’
It comes after Reese opened up on parenting, explaining she takes a calmer approach to being a mum to son Tennessee than with her older children, because they ‘wore me out.’
The Walk The Line star made the admission on New York Times’ The Interview podcast last month, saying these days she is ‘exhausted, wrung out and tired.’
She said: ‘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.”‘
Reese 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.
Explaining how women helped each other through it, Reese commended fellow actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Watts (pictured) for speaking out about their own symptoms, as it ‘normalised’ the condition
The actress recently revealed the guidance she gave to Ava as she follows in her mom’s footsteps in becoming a Hollywood star (seen with Ava last year)
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.’
The December/January issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK is on sale from 7 November.
