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Reese Witherspoon just revealed a surprising truth about her experiences with motherhood. It turns out, she didn’t have as easy of a time at the start of her time as a parent as it may have seemed.
Speaking on Dax Shepard’s popular podcast Armchair Expert, the 45-year-old actress said that she didn’t have a lot of support when she first became a mom, 21 years ago.
Witherspoon’s oldest child, Ava Phillippe, was born two months after the actress and her ex-husband, Ryan Phillippe got married. And Witherspoon shared that this time was a huge challenge for her.
“I did not have a lot of support with my first baby and I learned really early, like this is not going to work,” she said on the podcast. “I tried to muscle through for five months with Ava, just not sleeping and I became delirious.”
Witherspoon said that she was fortunate enough to have had enough money saved that she could be a stay-at-home mom to Ava after giving birth, though she added, "it's just not a one-person job. I would even say it's not a two-person job."
Now, the actress is a mom of three, and seems to have a good handle on her work-life balance. Witherspoon also shares her middle child, Deacon Phillippe, now 17, with her ex-husband, and shares her youngest child with her current husband.
Witherspoon split with Ryan Phillippe in 2006 and has been with her husband, Jim Toth, since 2011. Their son Tennessee James is now eight.