Reese Witherspoon was a proud mother on Tuesday when she shared a stunning photo with her daughter, Ava Phillippe, to celebrate the brunette beauty’s 26th birthday. The duo looked so alike in the snap, which saw them smiling together in a restaurant while both sporting summery, floral outfits. Reese donned a white sundress with a floral pattern for the occasion and added a brown belt to cinch in her waist, while Ava went for a strapless satin dress with a bold floral print on the bodice, and a metal chain belt with blue stones embedded in it.
Her tattoos were on full display, with one sitting on the inside of her elbow and the other inked closer to her shoulder. Despite Ava’s dyed brown locks, she could’ve been her mom’s twin as they captured the moment together. “Happy 26th my sweet girl @avaphillippe ! You have changed my life in all the best ways. I love you,” Reese wrote in the caption, alongside a series of birthday-themed emojis.
The Legally Blonde star’s famous friends took to the comment section to wish Ava well, including Octavia Spencer, Julianne Moore, and Kate Hudson. The mother-daughter duo is incredibly close, and Reese was just 23 years old when she welcomed Ava with her first husband, Ryan Phillippe. The couple also shares a 21-year-old son, Deacon, and Reese welcomed her youngest son, Tennessee, with her second husband, Jim Toth.
The 49-year-old opened up about her close bond with Ava in a 2021 appearance on The View, sharing that she had no support when the budding actress was a baby. “I lived away from my mother. My mom had a full-time job as a nurse, and I had a baby really young – I was 23 years old – and so I was raising her by myself,” she recalled.
“I don’t have any sisters, I don’t have any aunts. I was alone in a new city, in Los Angeles, and I literally had no friends. I would cry.” Thankfully, the experience brought her closer to Ava, and now the pair are each other’s biggest supporters.
“That makes me want to cry, the idea of having a long relationship with adult children,” Reese said to Interview magazine. “I never expected the kind of relationship that I have with them, but it’s so rewarding to be able to have kids that you can process life with a little bit, and they help me understand the complexities of what it means to be a human now.”
© Getty ImagesAva is a graduate of UC Berkeley and is now pursuing a career in modeling and acting. She has starred in campaigns for brands like Pat McGrath, Beyonce’s Ivy Park, and Reese’s clothing line, Draper James. The Ransom Canyon actress delighted fans in June when she brought her boyfriend, Dakota Brubaker, to the red carpet of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project 2025 Block Party.
© The Hollywood Reporter via GettyThis marked their public debut as a couple, months after sweet social media videos of the two went viral. They confirmed their romance in December 2024 when she shared a photo of her new love kissing her on the cheek in a photo booth. Ava and Dakota also reportedly moved in together in June.
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