Ryan Phillippe opens up on his divorce from Reese Witherspoon.
Ryan Phillippe calls his divorce from Reese Witherspoon, after seven years of marriage, “the darkest, saddest place I had ever been.”
The actor, 33, tells W magazine, “There were a good four or five months of not being able to get out of bed. It was the worst time in my life.”
But that was then. “You get through it,” Phillippe says now. “It’s a process that’s not easy, but I get less and less sad about it every day.”
The marriage produced two children for the couple: Ava, now 8, and Deacon, now 4. The pair’s split prompted speculation that acting couples cannot peaceably co-exist – especially when the woman earns more than the man (let alone wins an Oscar). Phillippe acknowledges that theory, but doesn’t necessarily buy its premise.
“I certainly understand the level of interest that comes along with a public marriage, and with being married to someone like Reese, who so many people love with good reason. People want answers,” he says. “But I think sometimes they wouldn’t be happy with what the answers would be.”
Instead, he says, the reason for the breakup was “far more complicated and far less interesting than it’s made out to be. To look and search for these salacious reasons, to pin it on a person, or a moment in someone’s life, it’s not realistic.”
Though the drama of the divorce has died down – and he and Witherspoon, 31, “have done a really good job at keeping things peaceable and completely focused on” the children – “I spend a lot of time just holed up in my house in Los Angeles,” he says. “I don’t really go out because I know it’s going to turn into a photo shoot.”
Though Phillippe is in the new movie Stop-Loss, a drama about Iraq war soldiers, he admits that the main reason he’s of interest to the paparazzi “is because I was married to the highest-paid actress in the world. Even though I’m not with her any longer, there is a certain amount of notoriety that I guess sticks beyond.”
Say he, “It’s just not interesting to me. It’s not how I want to be defined.”
As for reports that his current costar, Abbie Cornish, was the third wheel in his marriage, and one of the possible causes of the divorce, Phillipe laughs off the notion.
“It was unfair for her to be called the names that she was, because it wasn’t about that,” he says. “I don’t think an outside person can ever cause a divorce. I had difficulties in my relationship, and in my marriage, long before I ever met her.”
February 11th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Basically what I got from this was 1. “I was and still am jealoues of Reese’s success” and 2. “And I screwed Abbie Cornish while still married.”
February 11th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I really, really like him. He is obviously very intelligent and well spoken and thinks highly of Reese. I always thought she was lucky to have him, when I know everyone else thought the opposite. I know they were in counseling for years prior to their divorce. Apparently they went to individual counseling sessions so one or both of them had some kind of issues. It’s nice that he can be so honest about it, even though everyone will rip him to shreds and believe what they want to believe, which is hardly ever the real truth.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I don’t get how melissapedsm got those two things from his interview. I think people who are jealous would be more defensive. Obviously Reese loved him enough to marry him and she must of thought highly of him to do so. He is smart and he cares about his kids. I’m not condoning cheating and if he did, that is their business. Things look very different when you are actually involved with the situation vs not being in the actual situation.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
>>“It was unfair for her to be called the names that she was, because it wasn’t about that,” he says. “I don’t think an outside person can ever cause a divorce. I had difficulties in my relationship, and in my marriage, long before I ever met her.”>>
Soooo, basically he is confirming his fling with Abbie, even though he says it didn’t cause the divorce per se. Not that it’s a surprise, and it’s probably quite true. There probably were issues other than the fling. There usually are.
No pointing fingers from me. Just reading between the lines of what he very carefully sad here.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I like him. It must be hard divorcing the media’s darling, someone had to take a bashing and it wasn’t going to be her. It takes two to make a marriage work.
They got married too young, such a shame as they’re both decent people.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
basically, i came to the same conclusion as melissapedsrn: he’s jealous of reese’s success and he DID have an affair with abbie while still married. the first is unfortunate; neither he nor reese could have predicted that she’d have such wild success and he’d have to wait. the second, however, was totally in his controll. no matter how bad your marriage is, you wait until AFTER it’s over to start anything with anyone else.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Carson, were you there??? How do you know he had an affair with Abbie Cornish?? He’s been in two almost back to back movies with her, so obviously they are friends. And when your marriage breaks up, for whatever reason, you seek out your friends. Reese was hanging with Jake and no one said a damn thing. It’s just not a one way street. I have never thought he seemed jealous of Reese’s success. He always seemed so proud of her at the awards shows. Like he said, things happen. It’s private and it’s not our business.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:21 am
To be completely honest I think their marriage was doomed from day one. They got pregnant while dating and while he did the honorable thing it probably was never meant to be. I also remember before Deacon was even born she was telling the media that her and Ryan where is marriage counseling. If that doesn’t raise alarm bells I don’t know what does.
February 18th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
She’s not the highest-paid actress, but whatever. I always thought he is prettier than her