Reese Witherspoon opened up about her 2013 arrest Friday, calling the rare blemish on her career “embarrassing and dumb.” The incident is in Witherspoon’s rear-view mirror, but she said it proves she is “just a human being” who makes mistakes. The Big Little Lies star and husband Jim Toth were arrested in April 2013 in Atlanta after police pulled Toth over for drunk driving.
On Friday’s episode of I Weigh with Jameela Jamil, the Good Place star praised Witherspoon for her response to the media coverage the incident received at the time. “You apologized and shamed yourself in a way that was so f— refreshing to me,” Jamil said. “I loved your apology.” Witherspoon reminded Jamil the incident she apologized for in the first place was “really stupid.”
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“It was so embarrassing and dumb,” the Little Fires Everywhere star said, reports PEOPLE. “But, you know what — [it] turns out I breathe air. I bleed the same way. I make dumb decisions. I make great decisions. I’m just a human being. We’re all just the same as each other and we’re all trying to find what our special skills are. My special skill is storytelling but that doesn’t mean I’m a special person.”
Witherspoon pointed out that talent does not automatically make someone a good person. “But a big value in my family was, ‘Are you a good person?’” she added.
Back in 2013, police pulled Toth over on suspicion of drunk driving. Witherspoon was also arrested when she left the car after police told her not to. The case ended with Witherspoon pleading no contest for disorderly conduct and paying a $213 fine. Toth agreed to plead guilty to driving under intoxication and attended an alcohol education program and performed 40 hours of community service.
“Out of respect for the ongoing legal situation, I cannot comment on everything that is being reported right now,” Witherspoon said in a statement after her arrest. “But I do want to say, I clearly had one drink too many, and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said.”
“It was definitely a scary situation, and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse,” Witherspoon continued. “I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job. The words I used that night definitely do not reflect who I am. I have nothing but respect for the police and I’m very sorry for my behavior.”
Elsewhere in her interview with Jamil, Witherspoon touched on her experience with postpartum depression after the birth of one of her children. Witherspoon has two children with Ryan Philippe, Ava, 20, and Deacon, 16. She and Toth are parents to Tennessee, 7.
“One kid I had kind of mild postpartum, and then (with) one kid, I had severe postpartum, where I had to take pretty heavy medication, because I just wasn’t thinking straight at all,” Witherspoon said, reports USA Today. “And, then I had one kid, where I had no, no postpartum at all. Who knows? … Hormones are so understudied and not understood.”
Witherspoon can now be seen in the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere, based on the novel by Celeste Ng. The final episode will be released on April 22. She will also be seen in the upcoming second season of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. The Oscar-winner also has a long list of projects she is producing, including a third Legally Blonde movie and Amazon’s miniseries based on the novel Daisy Jones & The Six, starring Riley Keough.
