Reese Witherspoon says she regrets raising her kids in Los Angeles amid paparazzi during divorce

Reese Witherspoon says she regrets raising her children in Los Angeles because of the intense paparazzi that followed her during her split from Ryan Phillippe.

In remarks shared with The New York Times, the Oscar-winning actress described the early years of fame and the toll that a highly public divorce took on her family, particularly her children Ava and Deacon, who were seven and three at the time of the split.

The intensity of the pursuit extended beyond the street and into schools and car routes, she said, recounting episodes that left her and her kids anxious and exposed to invasive scrutiny. "And we would talk a lot about navigating public interest in our kids and how we could protect them from pictures and paparazzi, because they would be everywhere. All over the schools and all over the cars," Witherspoon explained. "I remember at church once in L.A., a guy jumping on the hood of the car and on each side, three people pushing against the window banging on the door when my kids were little after I got a divorce and chasing us like it was a police chase, down the freeways. It was terrifying. It was really hard on my kids. Anxiety-producing. I really regret living in L.A. during that time." The actor recalled that the paparazzi would capture moments of tension and then air only the parts where she appeared confrontational, which she said obscured the full context of the family’s experience. "And there’s a little boy and a little girl there," she added, underscoring the personal stakes.

My kids had really bad anxiety," she told the Times. "And it was all external. You can only shield them from so much, but when they can go to the playgrounds and are on the schoolyard, it feels like the world is chaos and there are no rules. [The paparazzi] would yell things at the kids about their dad or me that were wildly inappropriate." "I really regret living in L.A. during that time."

Witherspoon and Phillippe filed for divorce in 2006, and their marriage, which began after meeting on the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, ended in 2008. At the time of separation, the couple’s children were Ava (born 1999) and Deacon (born 2000). The Los Angeles upbringing later became a point of reflection for Witherspoon, who said she learned early on that fame can come with a price for those closest to a star.

The actress has previously noted that age and self-knowledge played a role in her decisions about relationships and career. She has described a pressure-filled period in which she had to rebuild after leaving an abusive relationship, saying she 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." "When I got out of that, 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. But I was really insecure. It took me a long time to be this woman that I am now," she said, reflecting on the process of healing and growth.

Beyond personal growth, Witherspoon has discussed how the public nature of her work complicates private life. She said she has deep empathy for other actors who live under scrutiny and that protecting children from dehumanizing treatment remains a priority. "It’s nearly impossible at this point, with everybody dehumanizing you, taking pictures of you like you’re an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children," she stressed. "It was really hard, and being a mom and wanting to protect young people is hard too." She also credited the shift toward social media as a tool for shifting control over what is publicly shown of her family. "That’s why when social media emerged, Jennifer Garner and I got on the phone, and we were like, ‘Oh, my God, we can decide when people have pictures of our kids? Sign me up,’" she said. "It devalued that market. There was no longer a market to see pictures of my children because people were getting it for free."

The interview, which touches on both professional milestones and personal battles, underscores how Witherspoon has navigated a career that rose rapidly from television work to blockbuster films while trying to shield her children from the glare of fame. She has continued to balance acting, producing, and philanthropy with a focus on family privacy, acknowledging that while fame can be empowering, it also carries enduring challenges for parents in the public eye.