Reese Witherspoon admitted she had to most relatable reaction to her eldest kids, Ava Phillippe and Deacon Phillippe, leaving for college.
“I grieved their going to college and I cried in their rooms,” Witherspoon, 49, said during the Saturday, September 20, episode of “The Interview” podcast about Ava, 26, and Deacon, 21, leaving home for the first time. “One year, one of them didn’t come home for Christmas and I sat in their bed and just cried.”
Witherspoon went on to explain that the experience was particularly challenging she would “do everything for them” as their parent. “You take the food out of your mouth, the coat off your back. You don’t sleep,” she said.
“You don’t sleep because you’re either taking care of their physical needs when they’re little,” Witherspoon continued. “Or when they’re older, you’re just so worried all the time that they’re gonna get in a car accident or they’re gonna come home or there’s gonna be drugs involved.”
Despite how tough it was to watch her kids leave the nest, Witherspoon acknowledged that watching kids grow up is part of being a parent. “You just have every worry the parents have, you know? And then one day, it’s kind of like, if you’ve done your job, you did the right things, they go,” she said.
“It makes me teary right now. It’s just really hard. But you know you did the right things,” Witherspoon added.
As Ava and Deacon have aged, Witherspoon explained that she now sees them as “incredible friends” instead of just children.
“Ava will call me and just be like a great friend,” the Morning Show actress shared. “Deacon calls me all the time we hang out in New York and he’ll tell me about cool restaurants and I’ll be like, ‘Great. Can you get a reservation?’ Because he can get better reservations than I can now.”
Witherspoon shares Ava and Deacon with her first ex-husband, Ryan Phillippe, while she is also the mom to son Tennessee, 12, with ex-husband Jim Toth.
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Also during the interview, Witherspoon got real about how her parenting style has changed with her youngest son. “Whenever I lose my cool,” she said, “I turn to my youngest and I go, ‘You got to call your brother and sister. They wore me out. I’m so tired. Like, eat the cookie. Go to bed late,” she said. “Just do it, you know, but like, think about how it’s going to make you feel.‘ ”
“And then like beyond that, I’m so tired. I’ve been parenting for 25 years,“ Witherspoon noted.