Reese Witherspoon Says Leaving An Emotionally Abusive Relationship Helped To Fulfill Her Destiny

If the words “fulfill her destiny” made you immediately think that this also involves Oprah, you’d be correct. Oprah recently sat down with her A Winkle in Time co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling for a SuperSoul Sunday conversation. Oftentimes Super Soul stuff gets super deep, and that’s exactly what happened when Oprah asked Reese and Mindy about the most difficult decision they had to make to fulfill their destiny. Mindy’s was about realizing she might lose some friends as she succeeded in her career. Reese’s was about getting out of an abusive relationship.

Reese explains that hers was a psychologically and verbally abusive relationship, rather than a physical one, and it happened when she was “really young.” She says he chipped away at her self-esteem, and that she could never be the person she is today if she didn’t leave him.

“People say to me that knew me then, ‘You’re a completely different person.’ I didn’t have self-esteem. I’m a different person now and it’s part of why I can stand up and say, ‘yes, I’m ambitious’ – because someone tried to take that from me before.”

The decision to leave happened after a “line was drawn in the sand” and something switched inside her. She says she knew leaving was going to be very difficult, but that she just couldn’t “go any further.” She goes on to say that while making Big Little Lies, all the women would sit around and talk about their own stories of abusive relationships, and that everyone had an experience in some capacity. Oprah then chimed in with her own story of sticking out a shitty relationship for too long.

Reese didn’t name her abusive ex by name. Thanks to some recent-ish allegations of domestic abuse, I’m sure many are thinking of Ryan Phillippe. Reese started dating Ryan when she was 21, which would technically make her “really young,” but she left him at 30. Before Ryan, a 17-year-old Reese dated Chris O’Donnell. And right after that, she reportedly dated Jason London, Stephen Dorff, and Mark Wahlberg. Marky Mark is lucky he’s in a group that includes some other kind of douchey dudes. Because typically “Mark Wahlberg” would be absolutely the correct answer when attempting to solve an asshole equation.

Pic: Wenn.com