Reese Witherspoon Had To ‘Rewire’ Her Brain After An Abusive Relationship

Reese Witherspoon has revealed that she once suffered in an abusive relationship that “diminished” her spirit and left her needing to “rewire” her brain.

The actress shared that despite the deep work she did on herself, she remained “really insecure” long after the relationship ended.

Reese Witherspoon, who has seen two of her previous marriages crash, shared her regrets on living in L.A. after divorce because paparazzi followed her and her kids like “a police car chase.”

Reese Witherspoon has opened up about a past abusive relationship that she says “diminished” her spirit and forced her to “rewire” her brain to recover.

The “Big Little Lies” actress made the revelation during her Saturday appearance on the NewYork Times‘ “The Interview” podcast, explaining that it took her “a while” to become sane again after the experience.

“You get into relationships that don’t work for you, and sometimes you don’t even see the dynamics that are happening,” Witherspoon shared on the show.

She continued, “When I got out of that, it took me a while to reconstitute myself. 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 “Morning Show” star then explained that even after leaving the said relationship, she remained “really insecure” due to the effect of the abuse she’d suffered.

“It took me a long time to be this woman that I am now,” Witherspoon continued. “It’s very hard to be a public figure. I have a lot of compassion for people who live public lives and maintain privacy.”

“It’s nearly impossible at this point, with everybody dehumanizing you, taking pictures of you like you’re an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children. It was really hard, and being a mom and wanting to protect young people is hard too,” she added.

The “Legally Blonde” star didn’t mention the name of any of her past partners. She has been married twice in the past, but the unions ended in divorce.

She married her former sweetheart Ryan Phillippe, and together they share two children, daughter Ava, and son Deacon Reese. Her second divorce was from Jim Toth, whom she married in 2011 and split from in 2023.

In a 2018 interview with O Magazine, she detailed her experience trying to leave a psychologically and physically abusive partner.

“A line got drawn in the sand and it got crossed, and my brain just switched,” the 49-year-old actress said of the moment she decided to leave, per Page Six. “I knew it was going to be very difficult, but I just couldn’t go any further. It was profound and I was young, really young.”

She continued, “I  could never be the person I am today. I was a different person, too. It changed who I was on a cellular level. The fact that I stood up for myself.”

“I’m a different person now, 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.

Witherspoon is currently dating German financier Oliver Haarmann.

Witherspoon then shared her struggles for privacy following her split from Phillippe.

In her interview with the New York Times, she explained that parenting her children became so tough as paparazzi trailed them like a “police chase.”

“They would be everywhere,” she said of photographers in the 2000s. “All over the schools and all over the cars.”

Witherspoon continued, “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.”

The “Sweet Home Alabama” star shared her regrets about not relocating them to a more serene environment at the time.

 “It was really hard on my kids. Anxiety-producing,” she said. “I really regret living in L.A. during that time.”

Witherspoon added, “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.”