His little mini-mes! Fans have debated for years whether Ryan Phillippe and ex Reese Witherspoon’s kids look more like their mom or dad — and the Cruel Intentions star is ready to set the record straight.
“What I get a lot lately is they think Deacon looks like her and Ava looks like me,” Phillippe, 48, told Extra in a Thursday, October 20, interview, referencing his 18-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter, whom he shares with the Legally Blonde actress, 46.
He joked, “My response is always, ‘Duh … How are you surprised that children look like their parents?’ Isn’t that biologically how it’s meant to work?”
While the Big Sky alum and Sweet Home Alabama star called it quits in 2008 after ten years of marriage, the pair have seamlessly raised their two children together.
“Ryan has been an awesome parent and everything pretty much stops for him when his kids need him,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2021, noting that coparenting has “never been better” between the actors. “Even during the pandemic when he’s been in literally another country, he’s present in their lives and he is still the ‘cool parent’ in their eyes. He is really proud of who they’ve become.”
While both Phillippe and the Morning Show actress are committed to being good parents, fans have regularly taken to social media to gush over Witherspoon’s uncanny resemblance to her children. (The Walk the Line star is also mom to 10-year-old son Tennessee James, whom she shares with husband Jim Toth.)
Earlier this month, the Louisiana native weighed in on the subject during an appearance on The Today Show With Hoda & Jenna. Witherspoon shocked viewers when she took a much different stance than her ex-husband, revealing that she doesn’t think she looks much like any of her kids
When cohost Jenna Bush Hager protested, saying, “Wait, y’all are twins!” about the Fear star and her daughter, Witherspoon replied, “She and I don’t see it that much.”
While the Emmy winner loves all her little ones equally, she shared that her parenting dynamic with them has changed over the years as they’ve grown.
“You establish a different relationship,” she told Hoda Kotb and Bush Hager, 40. “First of all, you’re managing them a lot when they’re little and it’s very physical. And then it’s more emotional support. And suggestions, not telling them what to do when they get a little bit older.”
Witherspoon noted that it’s important to “nurture your adult relationship with your children” as well and respectfully give them “space to become who they are, not who you want them to be.”
In August, the Hello Sunshine cofounder practiced what she preached by acting as a doting parent to Deacon when he released his new album.
“Listening [to your EP] on repeat! I love watching you create music & putting your thoughts/ heart/ ideas into the world,” the Water for Elephants star wrote via her Instagram Story at the time alongside a link to the musician’s SoundCloud page.
Phillippe, for his part, gushed over his son that same month after he made his acting debut in season 3 of Never Have I Ever.
“I am so proud. He’s about to go to college for music [too],” the I Know What You Did Last Summer actor told Entertainment Tonight. “That’s his primary focus. The acting thing he likes to do, and he will do according to what his appetite for it is, but his focus is primarily music.”
