"My spirit had been diminished": Reese Witherspoon opens up about being in an abusive relationship

The Morning Show actor, Reese Witherspoon, talked about the lasting impact of leaving an abusive relationship when she was young. She shared how it made her feel about herself and left lingering insecurities. Even with these hard times, she pointed out that others did not always see what she was going through.

Reese Witherspoon on emotional growth and self-recovery

Reese Witherspoon spoke about hard times with emotional growth and self-perception in a recent episode of The New York Times' The Interview podcast on September 20. Looking back on her young days, she said that even though she did well in her career, she struggled with emotional maturity. She said (via E News):

"I was very good at being a professional and showing up and doing the right thing, but I wasn’t emotionally mature when I was young. You get into relationships that don’t work for you, and sometimes you don’t even see the dynamics that are happening."

This led her into relationships that ultimately proved unhealthy. Even after she left those difficult situations, Witherspoon said she had a long journey to rebuild her sense of self again, trying to get past the bad thoughts she once believed. She told:

"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."

Reese Witherspoon reflects on privacy struggles and personal growth

Ever since she had to overcome the difficulties of being in the limelight, Reese Witherspoon has had time to work on herself and recover. The actress, who has one daughter, Ava, 26 and son Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and son Tennessee, 13, with ex-husband Jim Toth, recently revealed that it is hard to have privacy living as a star and under constant scrutiny.

During an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, she looked back on how hard it is to be a public figure and how sympathetic she now is toward other people who undergo such strains. She said (via E News):

"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 in a certain way, taking pictures of you like you’re an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children or having a private moment."

Witherspoon also revisited her experience of breaking free of an abusive relationship, how it transformed her identity and gave her the motivation, eventually enabling her to become ambitious and confident in her identity. According to a March 2018 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, she said:

"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... 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."

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