I was abused in past relationship, says Reese

REESE WITHERSPOON says she was psychologically and verbally abused in a previous relationship. The American actress, 41, said it had a “profound” effect on her and that leaving the man was the hardest task she has faced.

She is now married to Jim Toth with whom she has son Tennessee, five. She has two children with Ryan Phillippe, 43, her former Cruel Intentions co-star, to whom she was married from 1999 to 2007. Interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for the TV star’s magazine O, she said: “It changed who I was on a cellular level, the fact that I stood up for myself. It’s part of the reason I can stand up and say, ‘Yes, I’m ambitious.’ Because someone tried to take that from me.

“I drew a line in the sand, and it got crossed, and my brain just switched. I couldn’t go any further. I was really young, and it was profound.”

The Oscar-winner, who rose to fame as a child actress in the early Nineties, recently revealed that she was assaulted by a director when she was 16. She said she confronted her past in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood, adding: “A lot of these women with stories are my very dear friends, like Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow... I had known their experiences were difficult, but I had never understood the depth of the harassment. I was just floored, and then I realised, ‘This is the moment to tell what happened to me when I was young. This is the moment where healing begins’.”

The ex-Baywatch actress Nicole Eggert, 46, has said she was sexually abused from the ages of 14 to 16 by Scott Baio, her former co-star in sitcom Charles In Charge. Baio, 57, denies the allegations and said they had consensual sex when she was 18.