Everything Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe Have Said About Twinning With Their Kids: ‘It’s Weird’

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Everything Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe Have Said About Twinning With Their Kids: 'It's Weird'

Every time Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe share photos of their children, Ava and Deacon, fans point out how much the kids look like their parents — but the actors don't think the resemblance is so shocking. The Oscar winner, for her part, isn't even sure why her observers are so blown away by the likeness. When Jenna Bush Hager told her that she and daughter Ava are "twins" during an October 2022 appearance on the Today show, Witherspoon disagreed. “She and I don’t see it that much," the Walk the Line star quipped. The Emmy winner shares Ava (born in September 1999) and son Deacon (born in October 2003) with Phillippe, whom she divorced in 2007. The Louisiana native is also the mother of son Tennessee (born in September 2012, whom she shares with husband Jim Toth. Phillippe, for his part, also shares daughter Kai (born in July 2011) with ex Alexis Knapp. [jwplayer 4YCMU3VR-zhNYySv2] While Kai and Tennessee look like their famous father and mother, respectively, it's Ava and Deacon who spark repeated "twin" comparisons. In 2016, Phillippe revealed that he occasionally gets mistaken for Ava's brother. “[It] repulses her! Like, absolutely repulses her that anyone could mistake me for her brother," the Big Sky alum said during an appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden. Though Ava may be confused by the mistake, her parents did welcome her and Deacon when they were relatively young. The duo tied the knot in June 1999 after two years of dating. Witherspoon was 23 at the time, and Phillippe was 24. The Hello Sunshine founder later said she would "never change anything" about her past, but she advised Ava to wait a bit before settling down. "I got married when I was 23 and I had two kids by the time I was 27," the Sweet Home Alabama actress said during a 2017 interview on Lorraine. “I’ve said to my daughter, I think, you know, at 25 you start to know yourself a little bit better." Phillippe, meanwhile, has said that he felt comfortable around kids at a young age because he grew up helping out at his mother's daycare. "I was ready to be a young father because I grew up raising kids,” he told James Corden in 2016. “I would teach the kids to swim, I would do magic shows for them.” Keep scrolling for everything Phillippe and Witherspoon have said about looking like their children.

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The Kids Get Embarrassed

“One thing that I know my daughter gets embarrassed sometimes by is the fact that I do look so young and I get mistaken for her brother at times, which repulses her,” Phillippe joked during a November 2016 episode of The Late Late Show. “Like, [it] absolutely repulses her that anyone could mistake me for being her brother.”

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Dad Weighs In

The Crash actor admitted that it's somewhat baffling when fans are surprised by how much he looks like his kids. "I mean, it's weird, because isn't that obvious?" he quipped to Entertainment Tonight in June 2017. "Who else are they going to look like, you know? I always find that such a weird thing, like, [Ava] looks exactly like her mother, who else is she going to look like? It's an odd thing that people fixate on that."

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Maybe a Slight Resemblance

While many fans think Ava looks like her mother and Deacon looks like his father, Phillippe said he disagrees. "Obviously, there is a father-son resemblance. But he actually looks a lot more like Reese’s side of the family. Ava looks more like mine," the Delaware native told E! News in September 2021. “Quite often, the interpretation in the media is that she looks exactly like her mom and he looks exactly like me, but I think we both feel differently about it.”

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Mom Doesn't See It

"Y'all are twins," Hager told Witherspoon of her and Ava during an October 2022 episode of the Today show. The Morning Show actress replied: "Oh, you think so? She and I don't see it that much."

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It's Just Biology

“What I get a lot lately is they think Deacon looks like her and Ava looks like me,” Phillippe told Extra in October 2022. “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?”