Reese Witherspoon Opens Up To Oprah About Her Verbally Abusive Relationship

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for the March edition of Oprah Magazine, Reese Witherspoon revealed that many years ago she was in a verbally abusive relationship. As per E! Online, Witherspoon told Winfrey that one of the "most difficult" decisions she's had to make in her life involved leaving this relationship behind.

"For me, probably leaving an abusive relationship [was the most difficult decision]," Witherspoon says. "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."

Since the revelations about film producer Harvey Weinstein emerged, Witherspoon has become one of Hollywood's most visible advocates for Time's Up and the #MeToo movement. In October, following the publication of the New York Times exposé on Weinstein, she revealed that she was assaulted by a director when she was just 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," Witherspoon said at the Elle Women in Hollywood event that month. Witherspoon was one among a plethora of actresses who came forward with their own Hollywood horror stories.

"This has been a really hard week for women in Hollywood, for women all over the world, for men in a lot of situations and a lot of industries that are forced to remember and relive a lot of ugly truths," Witherspoon added. "I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate."

Witherspoon has been one of the leaders of the conversation surrounding women in Hollywood, especially because her women-led series Big Little Lies is getting so much attention. She has a number of projects in development, in addition to the forthcoming movie A Wrinkle in Time, and here she is, chatting with Winfrey in O Magazine. This is the undeniable year of raw, vulnerable Witherspoon, and we're absolutely here for it.