Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth have been mastering the marriage game since they tied the knot in 2011. They recently celebrated their tenth anniversary, with Reese describing their life together as filled with "Big LOVE, lots of laughing, non-stop travel, so many dogs, and fun adventures." While you’ve probably seen one, or several, of the adorable couple shots she's posted to her Instagram, you may not be aware of just how inspiring their love story is.
Reese and Jim met at a party.
Reese, 48, and Jim, 51, first met through a work connection: Jim had a 23-year-long career as a talent agent at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where Reese is a client. (Jim left CAA for the now-defunct startup Quibi in 2019.) Jim was never her agent, but he did rep a lot of A-listers including Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, and Robert Downey Jr. According to Reese, though, their first interaction was not actually in a professional setting, but at a friend’s party where Jim came to Reese’s rescue.
"This really drunk guy was hitting on me, making such an idiot of himself, yelling at me," she told Elle. "He was like, [slurring, scowling, pointing finger in her face] 'You don't know me.' And I was like, 'Yeah, I know. I don't know you!' Jim came over and said, 'Please excuse my friend. He's just broken up with someone.' Jim was a really good friend, pulling him out of that situation. That's just kind of who he is, a really good person."
They started dating shortly after her breakup with another actor.
The pair started dating around January 2010, shortly after her split from Jake Gyllenhaal, and went public with their romance for the first time in March of that year, during a birthday getaway in Ojai, California. Two years later, Reese explained in a touching interview how Jim had swept her off her feet by making her feel safe and cared for.
“Jim said ‘I’m gonna show you every day what a good partner is, what a good person is. I'm going to take care of you. I'm gonna do this so much that you're gonna get used to it,'” she told Elle. “I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ I’ve never had anybody like that in my life.”
A source told People that Jim’s maturity was another factor in Reese falling for him so quickly. “He’s someone who’s more mature and in a place in his life where he’s ready to settle down,” the source said. “The relationship happened very fast. I think for the first time in a very long time, she feels as if she’s with a grown-up.”
Their whirlwind romance quickly led to something more.
Things between the couple got serious quickly, and after less than a year of dating, Jim proposed to Reese. “They are extremely happy,” their reps told Us Weekly when the news emerged.
They were married in March of 2011, in an intimate ceremony at Reese’s $7 million estate in Ojai. Reese wore a custom-designed gown by Monique Lhuillier, and celebrity attendees included Matthew McConaughey, Renee Zellweger, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey, Jr., Alyssa Milano, Isla Fisher, and Salma Hayek. Per Us Weekly, the nuptials were rustic, featuring a wood-plank dance floor and deliberately mismatched furniture, while The Daily Mail reported that eighty white doves were released after the couple exchanged vows. “Reese and Jim were beaming all night,” an anonymous guest told Us.
It wasn't long until they started a family.
A year after the wedding, the couple confirmed that they were expecting their first child. Reese gave birth to a baby boy, Tennessee James Toth, on September 27, 2012. She also has two children from her first marriage to Ryan Phillippe: daughter Ava, 22, and son Deacon, 17.
Reese opened up to People in 2016 about what makes Jim such a great husband and dad: “He’s an incredible man, a wonderful organizer, a great leader," she said. "He’s very patient and funny with the kids, and he really encourages them to see the humor in life.”
Reese's husband is now her number one supporter.
In addition to her on-screen acting work, Reese has taken an increasingly powerful role behind the camera in recent years, developing and producing a number of acclaimed projects including Wild, Big Little Lies, and The Morning Show.
According to Reese in a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, it was Toth who inspired her to make this shift: "He said, 'You should produce movies. You read more books than anybody I know. You should just buy some of them and turn them into films,'" she recalled. That year, Reese formed her Hello Sunshine production company, which she sold to Blackstone Group Inc. in August 2021 for $900 million.
She also revealed that Jim has encouraged her to make her voice heard in Hollywood. "I get a lot of support from my husband,” she told Marie Claire. “He cares deeply about equality and always tells me,'Why wouldn’t you call the person in charge of a company and have a personal relationship with them?' He’s encouraged me to be outspoken.”
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
