The Celebrity Truth

Ryan Phillippe has opened up about his failed marriage to actress Reese Witherspoon, admitting that the constant speculation from the media about the state of their relationship “took more of a toll” than he had antipicated.

Phillippe, 33, told Britain’s ‘The Times Magazine’ that, “I fooled myself into believing it would be easier than it was”.

“To have people speculating constantly about the state of your relationship, casting aspersions and telling lies… It took more of a toll than I was immediately aware of," he told the magazine.

He said that a major downside of fame has been the effect on his children, particularly daughter Ava.

"She’s aware [of photographers] and it creates in her a lot of anxiety, which is partly my fault. When Ava was very young, I was young too. I’d get… visibly angry at the paparazzi back then. She was my first child, and my instinct was to protect her," he said.

“Ava, to this day… It breaks my heart to think about it, hearing her say, ‘My friends at school saw a picture of me in a magazine and they made fun because I was carrying a blanket.’ "

His four-year-old son, Deacon, is not affected in the same way, he says, “mainly because since his birth, I’ve realized that you’ve got to make it seem like less of a big deal.”

Phillippe says he has found a way to turn a negative into a positive, an has begun to use the attention for a good cause, by wearing shirts with charity websites that he supports, such as Children’s Defense and Africare.

"These pictures go around the world and untold numbers of people see them,” he says.

“One organization told me their web hits went up 2,000 percent overnight after one such image was syndicated."

NEXT:  50 Cent Lashes Out At Alicia Keys

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.