REESE’S SECRET BREAKDOWN
With her marriage teetering and the sudden death of a close friend, the star is at breaking point
Reese Witherspoon’s professional life has been on fire in recent years. From Big Little Lies and The Morning Show to Little Fires Everywhere, the 44-year-old is riding an incredible career wave of success.
Sadly though, the motherof-three’s personal life seems to be imploding.
After more than a year of intense tabloid speculation that her nine-year marriage to Hollywood talent agent Jim
Toth is on the rocks, moving vans were pictured outside of their Los Angeles home.
Sources tell Woman’s Day they’ve been on the brink of divorce several times in the past 12 months – Reese tellingly didn’t mark their recent wedding anniversary in March – but kept it together for their son Tennessee, seven, and her older children Ava, 20, and Deacon, 16, from her marriage to Ryan Phillippe.
“Reese is on the edge now though, it’s all becoming too
much,” confides a source. “She’s a perfectionist who has tried to be the best at her work, her marriage and her mothering, and it’s a lot.”
In a cruel twist, the actress is also now dealing with the sudden death of her longtime friend, Little Fires Everywhere director Lynn Shelton, who passed away aged 54 from an unknown blood disorder.
“That brought Reese to her knees,” says our source. “She was struggling as it is, but to lose a dear friend is core-shaking.”
‘SO MUCH UNCERTAINTY’
Just last week, she posted a quote attributed to her writer friend Glennon Doyle on Instagram reading, “If you are uncomfortable – in deep pain, angry, yearning or confused – you don’t have a problem, you have a life. Being human is not hard because you’re doing it wrong, it’s hard because you’re doing it right.”
It was accompanied with a poignant caption from Reese.
She writes, “There’s so much uncertainty right now. One thing that is so difficult for me is not knowing what happens in the future. I’m a planner and a goal setter. But, the other thing I am is a believer. I believe that people are good. I believe there is a higher purpose (even if I don’t always know what it is). I believe the human spirit is truly remarkable. I believe we will get through this, because of my mother and my grandmother and all the other women that came before me that overcame so much for me to be here. If they got through all of the challenges they faced, so can I. I know this is true.”
In recent months, Reese has been candid about her rollercoaster mental health, including postpartum depression on the births of her children.
Speaking on a podcast recently, she said, “I definitely had anxiety, my anxiety manifests as depression so I would get really depressed. My brain is like a hamster on a wheel and it won’t come off – I’ve been managing it my entire life.
Collapsing in tears recently, she also said, “I’ll lay on the floor and cry or I’ll sit in my car and cry. Sometimes I’m totally overwhelmed.”
Now, with movers packing boxes outside her palatial mansion, speculation is either Reese or Jim is moving to one of the other homes they own in California.
“What she posted on Instagram could well be interpreted as soul-searching as her marriage implodes,” says our source.
“It’s not like her to be so publicly introspective, so she’s certainly hurting right now.”
‘That brought her to her knees. She is struggling as it is’