Reese Witherspoon shares why post divorce media treated her differently than Britney Spears
Apr 28, 2021
Washington [US], April 28 : Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon recently shared the reason why the media treated her differently than Britney Spears after their divorces in November 2006.
According to E! News, during a new interview, the 45-year-old actor reflected on the scrutiny she has faced over the years. It was in November 2006 that Witherspoon filed for divorce from her now ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, with whom she shares daughter Ava Phillippe, and Deacon Phillippe. She also has an 8-year-old son, Tennessee Toth, with her husband Jim Toth.
Looking back at that time, the 'Legally Blonde' alum recalled being hounded by the paparazzi, who she said followed her to church, to her kids' school and to their soccer practice.
She told about a time when an RV with photographers parked outside her California home and pointed their cameras into her kitchen window to snap pictures every hour of every day. She remembered, "My children will tell you stories about being in preschool and people climbing on the roofs of our cars."
Witherspoon, who later moved her family to Nashville, compared her experience to Britney Spears' in that the 39-year-old singer also filed for divorce from her now ex-husband Kevin Federline in November 2006 and was constantly chased by the paparazzi with her two kids Sean Preston Federline, and Jayden James Federline.
Still, Witherspoon knows the media treated her differently than Spears. The Oscar winner told that women like Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan were painted as "bad" while women like herself and Jennifer Garner were labelled as "good," pointing to how her screaming at the cameras never stuck to her reputation like it did with her fellow stars.
She said, "What if the media had decided I was something else? I would be in a totally different position. I want to say it's my decisions or the career choices I made, but it felt very arbitrary. And kind of sh-tty."
Spears' treatment by the media--along with her conservatorship battle--was examined in the documentary 'Framing Britney Spears'. Hilton reflected on this topic in a February episode of her podcast 'This Is Paris'.
