Reese Witherspoon Weakly Recounts "Broken" Breakup a Year Ago: "I Cried and Cried

Reese Witherspoon opened up about the personal difficulties she faced a year ago, saying she felt like a "broken" robot and "cried and cried" with extraordinary courageous candor and vulnerability, E! News reported. [Witherspoon said at her company Hello Sunshine's Shine Away event in Los Angeles yesterday, "I've been working hard to find balance outside of work." She added: "I'm someone who fills my schedule with busyness, so I feel less lonely, nervous, and restless.

Witherspoon, whose divorce from Jim Toth, announced in March and finalized in August, said that although work has always been a major part of her life, "I started to realize that it wasn't working for me. About a year ago, I said, 'I'm a robot, and the robot is broken. I cried and cried."

Witherspoon said she texted her friend, Tracee Ellis Ross, to help her process it all: "It actually makes me feel very vulnerable sharing it with you guys, but I think it's important," Witherspoon said on stage said with tears in her eyes. 'We have so many people behind us. My beautiful friend Cleo Wade, about the glue of people's lives ... She wrote a wonderful poem about the glue of people's lives. Whether it's a job, a mother, or a partner, you can be the glue in anyone's life.

Of Wade's poem, Witherspoon said that reading it "brought tears to my eyes."

In addition to being a mother of three, Witherspoon is extremely busy: actress, producer, philanthropist, founder of the media company Hello Sunshine, her own clothing line, Draper James, and Reese's Book Club. Now, she said, she wants to share the lessons learned, hoping the road will be easier for others who can learn from her struggles. 'I feel I have learned a lot,' she said. 'In my early twenties, I read every book and self-help book I could find, went to therapy, tried to understand myself and forgive myself for the parts of myself that felt broken and failed.'

She added, "Instead of thinking of it as a failure, I think, 'Oh, I learned so much from that moment.' And instead of blaming others, I reward myself for the hard things that little Reese went through."