Reese Witherspoon admitted she was caught off guard when her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe joked that she made more money than him at the 2002 Academy Awards.
The couple – who split in 2006 – presented the Oscar for Best Makeup when Witherspoon, 44, asked if she could read the winner, to which Phillippe, 46, replied, “You make more than I do.
She laughed and seemed shocked by the comment before reading “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” as the winner.
“I forgot that ever happened,” Witherspoon said on the “HFPA in Conversation” podcast on Friday. “He said that, and no, it wasn’t written. He didn’t tell me he was going to say that before it happened on the airwaves. So I was a little confused at this point. ”
Witherspoon, who shares two children, 21-year-old Ava and 17-year-old Deacon, with the “Big Sky” actor, added, “There are so few women who make a lot of money that they are sometimes ashamed of it. and sometimes they are expected to give and do more and be more for others in the same position that a male movie star would not expect and that is just the double standard that exists in our society. ”
However, she said gender norms have changed a lot in the last 20 years since he made the comment and more women are making money and having these conversations about money.
“Women need to talk about money and how they made money and they shouldn’t be ashamed of it,” she continued.
Witherspoon also said that when Ava was in second grade, she came home ashamed because someone in school was raising that her mother was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.
‘I said,’ Never be ashamed of a woman who makes money. “There are women all over the world who have no opportunity or education or are unable to make money,” Witherspoon recalled. “Never feel bad when your mom makes money, and never feel bad when you make money, and don’t feel embarrassed or embarrassed if it’s more than your partner.”
Witherspoon and Phillippe met at the actress’s “Morning Show” 21st birthday party in 1997. They married in 1999 and split in 2006. Witherspoon married talent agent Jim Toth in 2011 and welcomed her son Tennessee in 2012. Phillippe has a 9 -year-old daughter with ex Alexis Knapp.