Actress Reese Witherspoon announced on her Instagram page that she was separating from her husband of twelve years, Jim Toth. It is Witherspoon’s second marriage to end in divorce.
“We have some personal news to share… It is with a great deal of care and consideration that we have made the difficult decision to divorce,” Witherspoon wrote on social media. “We have enjoyed so many wonderful years together and are moving forward with deep love, kindness and mutual respect for everything we have created together.”
“Our biggest priority is our son and our entire family as we navigate this next chapter,” she added. “These matters are never easy and are extremely personal. We truly appreciate everyone’s respect for our family’s privacy at this time.”
The divorcing couple shares one child together, 10-year-old Tennessee. He is Withersoon’s youngest of three children; Ava, 23, and Deacon, 19, are shared with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe.
While divorce can sometimes spare two people further pain and anguish in a miserable relationship, it is usually not seen as something that happens for the best. And yet, that is how the 47-year-old actress’s separation is being portrayed. A source told People magazine that she and Toth are navigating an “amicable divorce” and that the couple remains “best of friends.”
For the kid’s sake, we can all hope that’s true. Whether or not the couple simply wants to avoid the paparazzi and ugly headlines is left up for debate.
“This is such an amicable decision,” the source continued. “They are so committed to co-parenting together. They are invested in their whole family and making this as smooth as possible for everyone.”
Nothing says co-parenting like doing it from different homes and with different future partners.
This is Witherspoon’s second divorce. Her first was from her first husband, Ryan Phillippe. US Magazine, describing that marriage and divorce, said:
Once one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe called it quits in 2006 after seven years of marriage — but the twosome are forever linked thanks to their look-alike children.
While many believe that the twosome met and fell in love while filming the 1999 movie Cruel Intentions, Witherspoon confirmed on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in 2015 that they had been “living together for about a year and a half” when they shot the film. She also told Andy Cohen at the time that daughter Ava and son Deacon hadn’t seen the movie.
“They’re like, ‘This is so weird!’ And especially seeing me and their dad having sex. It’s so weird,” she said at the time. “Not interested.”
Phillippe, meanwhile, recalled telling their kids about making the movie during a 2014 HuffPost Live interview.
“It was funny — we were reminiscing then because we shot a lot of Cruel Intentions [in New York City], so there we were with Ava and Deacon talking, and they were tripping out on the fact that we were there shooting a movie before they were even a thought in our minds,” he said, noting that the former spouses were in a “really great place” at the time. “It’s a feeling-out process. … It’s going well, and she’s happy and remarried, and our kids are incredible. I’m proud of the way we’ve handled it and who our little people are.”
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