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Domestic abuse is a major theme in Big Little Lies, the HBO hit show that stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Alexander Skarsgard.
And it seems at least one of the cast has experienced it in real life, after Reese Witherspoon opened up about leaving an abusive relationship in her past.
In an interview with her A Wrinkle In Time co-star Oprah Winfrey in O Magazine, Winfrey asked Witherspoon “What’s the most difficult decision you’ve had to make to fulfill your destiny?”
“For me, probably leaving an abusive relationship,” the 41-year-old said, explaining she suffered both “psychological” and “verbal” abuse.
“I drew a line in the sand, and it got crossed, and my brain just switched. I couldn’t go any further. I was really young, and it was profound.
“It changed who I was on a cellular level, the fact that I stood up for myself. It’s part of the reason I can stand up and say, ‘Yes, I’m ambitious,’” she explained.
“Because someone tried to take that from me.”
Reese is married to Jim Toth, who she has a four-year-old son with.
Prior to that relationship, she married her Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Philippe, who she began dating at 21 and had two children – Ava and Deacon – with. They announced their split in 2006.
Reese has been one of the more vocal voices in Hollywood following the #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements. She revealed she was sexually harassed by a film director when she was 16.
“[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old, and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment,” she said at a Women In Hollywood event.
Around the time she was 16, in the early nineties, Reese starred in The Man In The Moon, Wildflower and A Far Off Place.
“I wish that I could tell you that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly it wasn’t,” the actor-turned-director said.
“I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault and I don’t speak about them very often.”
