Reese Witherspoon Marriage Woes, Divorce With Ryan Phillippe Blamed On Actress’ Success

Did Reese Witherspoon’s rising career cause the marriage problems with first husband Ryan Phillippe that eventually led the two to divorce? A new docuseries suggests so.

REELZ’s “Reese Witherspoon: The Price of Fame” sheds light on how the Hollywood actress’ marriage with Phillippe crumbled the moment her popularity in the showbiz industry rose higher than that of her husband’s.

“Right after Reese has this huge career-changing moment and is now Oscar-winning actress … things in her marriage were just getting progressively worse and going downhill,” biographer Lauren Brown revealed in the docuseries, as shown in the clip below.

Witherspoon and Phillippe reportedly had a string of public fights after the former’s film career started to overshadow the latter’s spotlight. When they tied the knot in 1999, many looked at them as this sweet, happy couple. But the actress’ superstardom quickly changed this and the two started airing each other’s dirty laundry in public.

The rivalry between the husband and wife intensified when Witherspoon’s 2001 movie “Legally Blonde” became a huge success. Brown said that the comedy movie put the actress on a level that was lightyears ahead of the actor’s and Phillippe didn’t handle this well.

In 2007, Witherspoon and Phillippe formally split and divorced despite already having two kids — Ava Elizabetth, now 19, and Deacon, who is currently 15 — at the time. Two years later, the actress revealed that it was “tough” when they got divorced, so she had to spend a lot of time to try to feel better.

“Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe had a divorce in the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, and [the actress] spoke about this time and said that it was extremely humiliating and isolating for her,” entertainment journalist Raha Lewis said in the docuseries.

The “Big Little Lies” star has since moved on with talent agent Jim Toth. The two walked the aisle in 2011 and welcomed their son Tennessee James a year after. There have been rumors recently that Witherspoon and Toth are struggling to keep it together all because the actress’ “crazy workload” was “putting a strain on [their] marriage.”

However, the rumors have already been debunked. The couple proved them wrong when they stepped out for a date on Valentine’s Day and when they celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary by slow-dancing in front of the audience at the Harlem Globetrotters game days later.