“If You Aren’t Adding to My Life, Get Out” Reese Witherspoon Opened Up About Her Life After Divorce

How hard is it to be a woman in her forties who is going through a second divorce? Reese Witherspoon, who turned 47 this year, had to experience this first hand. She realized that she and her husband to whom she had been married for 12 years became strangers to each other.

Someone will probably snicker ironically now, thinking that the hardships of one of the most beautiful and highly paid actresses in the world are just another hype story. Probably Reese Witherspoon snickered at the Legally Blonde screenplay the same way because the story of a rich girl Elle Woods from Beverly Hills didn’t touch her at all.

“She’s from Beverly Hills, she’s rich, she’s in a sorority. She has a great boyfriend. Oh yeah, she gets dumped. Who cares? I still hate her,” the actress thought at first. But later, Reese decided to prove to herself and to the world that it’s impossible to hate this character, and did it so brilliantly that the movie became a box office hit, and Elle Woods became popular all over the world.

So, we decided to forget about stereotypes and to just find out how the actress, producer and divorced mom of 3, whose desk is decorated with an embroidery that says “What if women ruled the world?” is right now.

Reese in September 2023

Reese Witherspoon met Jim Toth in 2010 at a friend’s house. Some guy started hitting on her and yelling at her there. So, Jim came up to her and apologized for this guy, who was his friend, saying that he was rude because he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

“Jim was a really good friend,” Reese says. “That’s just kind of who he is, a really good person.” A month later, Reese and Jim started dating, and in late 2010, they announced their engagement, and got married in March 2011.

Reese and Jim Toth

When Reese and Jim married, she already had 2 children from a previous marriage. Somebody close to her once said, “Oh, no man will ever accept your children.” But Jim became a loving father not only to their common son, but also to Reese’s older children.

Jim Toth also became the one who helped Reese to achieve new career heights. He, a successful casting agent, once told Reese, “You should produce movies. You read more books than anybody I know. You should just buy some of them and turn them into films.” So in 2016, Reese founded her production company, Hello Sunshine, which she sold for $900 million in 2021.

But over time, their love faded, and in April 2023, Reese and Jim announced their divorce. Among the reasons for the divorce, the couple cited the fact that they were “very different people.” However, the actress and the agent remained good friends and continue to raise their children together.

Reese with the kids and ex-husband

Now Reese is single again, but she never gives in to her sorrows. She works on multiple projects and paints pictures by numbers to get rid of stress. She reveals that in her current state of mind she is not as active as she used to be, her brain is not as efficient, and she lacks inspiration. But this is just one of the periods of life that will eventually pass. And sometimes such a period of inactivity helps us reach new heights.

“Finding pleasure at home — whether in a family dinner or a book club or a backyard barbecue — can give us the strength to go out into the world and do incredible things,” says Reese.

At the same time, she doesn’t feel lonely: she has many good friends who she met during filming. However, the actress is very picky about her connections. She believes that you should part with people if you don’t feel you’re close anymore. “My grandma used to say, people are radiators or drains. Stick with radiators,” the actress shared.

Reese and Jennifer Aniston

Apparently, Reese’s second marriage was not that bad, but her divorce makes it clear that she doesn’t want to put up with something that doesn’t make her happy. Otherwise, new good things may never enter your life. This is how Reese describes it in her own words, “Everybody out there over 40 knows. If you aren’t adding to my life, get the heck outta my life.”

Reese and Nicole Kidman

Reese Witherspoon believes that her attitude to life has changed with age. “I think you start to realize there’s a finite amount of time that you have to accomplish what you want to accomplish in this world and that worrying about other people’s opinions of you is a waste of your precious time. It’s a liberation in your 40s to feel free of other people’s opinions.”

And Reese, despite being successful and famous, still has a lot of dreams. She realized once that most of the movies in Hollywood are made with men’s perspective in mind. So, she started producing movies that show strong women, such as Gone Girl (2014), Wild (2014), and Big Little Lies (2017 — 2019). She also prefers to play comic roles to make the everyday life of her audience more enjoyable.

47-year-old Reese says, “I really don’t care what anybody thinks. I’m gonna do my work anyway. I’m gonna date whoever I want, go hang out with a friend nobody likes. When you release that feeling of other people’s opinions crushing you or holding you down, you’re free. You’re totally free.”

Reese and Laura Dern

Sometimes simple words can support you in a difficult moment and help you cope with hardships in life. By the way, not only ordinary people but also celebrities face problems from time to time: just read this article about famous actors who failed their auditions.