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Reese Witherspoon is opening up about one of the most emotional chapters of her life, sending her kids off to college.
The Morning Show star, 49, reflected on how difficult it was when her oldest children, Ava Phillippe, 26, and Deacon Phillippe, 21, whom she shares with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, left home to pursue their studies.
“I grieved their going to college and I cried in their rooms,” Witherspoon admitted on the Sept. 20 episode of The Interview podcast.
“One year, one of them didn’t come home for Christmas and I sat in their bed and just cried.”
The Oscar winner, who is also mom to 12-year-old son Tennessee with ex-husband Jim Toth, explained why the transition was so overwhelming.
“It’s a loss because you do everything for them,” she said. “You take the food out of your mouth, the coat off your back. You don’t sleep.”
Witherspoon went on to describe the constant worry that comes with parenting.
“You don’t sleep because you’re either taking care of their physical needs when they’re little. 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.”
Still, she acknowledged that letting go is part of parenting.
“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.”
Now that her kids are adults, Witherspoon says their relationship has grown into something new and special.
“Ava will call me and just be like a great friend. 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.”
