Reese Witherspoon’s daughter Ava Phillippe, 22, says ‘gender is whatever’

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe’s daughter Ava Phillippe, 22, has spoken out on her sexuality.

Ava was responding to questions from fans on her Instagram page, which boasts 996k followers.

One fan asked ‘do you like boys or girls,’ to which the student and aspiring model answered: ‘I’m attracted to… people! (Gender is whatever).’

Ava is the oldest of two children shared by Witherspoon and Phillippe, who also parent 18-year-old son Deacon. Reese also shares son Tennessee, nine, with her husband Jim Toth.

Ava is currently attending UC Berkeley and has previously shared her relationship with Own Mahoney, who she met at the college. They were last seen together in the summer but it’s not clear if they are still together. 

Reese, 45, admitted in a candid interview last year that she ‘didn’t understand what homosexuality was’ until she moved to Los Angeles because she wasn’t taught about it growing up.

The actress made the revelation during a virtual interview with Watchmen star Regina King – with whom she co-starred in Legally Blonde 2 in 2003 – as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series.

Close: Ava’s mother Reese, 45, admitted in a candid interview last year that she ‘didn’t understand what homosexuality was’ until she moved to LA (pictured together in 2021)

Mother-of-three Reese was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1976 and raised in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to LA in the early stages of her career.

Speaking from her home in California about her TV show Little Fires Everywhere, based on Celeste Ng’s hit 2017 novel, Reese told Regina: ‘No one spoke to me about sexuality when I was a teenager.

‘I didn’t understand what homosexuality was. My grandparents didn’t explain it, my parents didn’t explain it. I had to learn from somebody I met on an audition in Los Angeles.’

She referenced the moment her Little Fires Everywhere character Elena – matriarch of the seemingly-perfect Richardson family – discusses homosexuality in the show, explaining that she incorporated snippets of a conversation she once had about the topic into the script.

Cute: Ava is currently attending UC Berkeley and has previously shared her relationship with Own Mahoney, who she met at the college

Reese also recently opened up about her children growing up in the spotlight, telling InStyle that Ava is having a very different experience to her.

‘It’s an odd situation because I didn’t grow up famous. So [Ava is] living an experience that I did not have, and so are my sons. We are lucky enough to have friends who grew up in Hollywood and can help give them advice on how to navigate.’

‘Ava is so down-to-earth. She wants to do great things in the world. She’s studying and learning and trying to find herself. It’s a big thing in life to try different things and figure out what is really your path.’  

Former loves: Ava is the oldest of two children shared by Witherspoon and Phillippe, who also share 18-year-old son Deacon (pictured during their relationship in 2006)