In the last few months Reese Witherspoon has slowly started talking about her divorce from Ryan Philippe. Reese never gets into specifics – I doubt she’ll ever be the sort to air her dirty laundry in public, and that’s good. Though I have to admit I am curious to hear some of it. Elle.com has an interview with her that looks like it’s excerpted from a longer article. She talks about how painful her divorce was, but also points out that if you’re not feeling those sad emotions, you should have never gotten married to the other person in the first place.

On her divorce: “Very humiliating and very isolating…But, by the way, if it’s not painful, maybe it wasn’t the right decision to marry to begin with. Those are the appropriate emotions. When people get in your face and say, ‘This will pass,’ you think, Are they crazy? I’m never gonna feel any better than I feel right this minute and nothing’s ever gonna make sense again. And I still have moments where I’m like, Nothings ever gonna make sense again.”

On dealing with the pain that stems from divorce: “You see a lot of people play this blame game. Blame, blame, blame. You know? And it’s a really easy thing to do, and I’m certainly guilty of it. [You have to] look at yourself and go, ‘What part of this do I need to own? Which part of this is my responsibility? And that’s the painful work that you have to go through to hopefully get some real life knowledge out of it.”

[From Elle.com]

Reese also said it was hard becoming a mother at the age of 22. She was away from her family and couldn’t afford help. In past interviews she admitted that getting pregnant is why she and Ryan got married, but it doesn’t seem like she regrets the choice. It sounds more like she regrets that her marriage ended rather than wishing it had never happened at all. There’s a lot of therapy speak in her phrasing, which isn’t surprising. It sounds like she’s done a lot of reflecting in trying to come to terms with her divorce.

There are still a lot of rumors going around that she and boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal are going to get engaged. It seems like Reese will be in a much better place this time around if they do.

Here’s Reese as Avon’s Global Ambassador speaking out against domestic violence while launching a new campaign to benefit the Avon Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School, held at the National Press Club in Washington DC yesterday. Images thanks to WENN.com.