Remember back in the day when Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were the cutest couple? They were one of the most popular celebrity romances of the 2000s. But to clarify how long ago that was, their first child together — Ava — is currently 21 years old. She's also the spitting image of her mother.
Ava and her brother Deacon are shared between the former couple, but they also have a younger half brother still at home. Tennessee James Toth was born in 2012 and is currently 8 years old. They also have a half sister, Kai, who is 9.
While Ava and Deacon have been keeping somewhat of a low profile, Ava has a fairly popular Instagram account where fans of her and her mom can find updates. Ava just used her platform to show off the special guy in her life.
Finding out that Ava is already 21 may make plenty of Reese's fans feel old. But she's fully an adult and ready to branch out for herself. While it's unclear as to whether or not any of Reese's kids would be interested in the spotlight, they already have plenty of media attention.
That said, she seems quite happy with her boyfriend in the photo. Ava took the selfie at the Austin Bat Bridge and captioned it, "the bats were feeling shy… so here's a pic of us instead." Not only did she get a ton of support, but she also got a shout-out from her mom.
" These two," Reese made sure to comment, which sparked even more interest.
"I had to do a double take," one fan wrote. "I thought this was you and Ryan She's beautiful. Your twin ❤️ ."
"It's Reese & Ryan 2.0," another follower responded. And they're not wrong.
While Ava might not love the comparisons of her boyfriend to her dad, it's mostly her genetics that have people making the comparison. In a picture with both Reese and Ava, it's hard to tell them apart from each other. And it's likely something the two have heard quite a bit.
Reese has opened up a lot about motherhood throughout the last 21 years. Most recently, she admitted that her work style is nothing like her parenting style. That might mean that Reese and Ava have a very relaxed relationship back at home, especially since Ava has been a full-grown adult for years now.
"I melt around my kids," Reese said, per Oprah Magazine. "I'm much more squishy, soft, and lovey with a caramel center." But she also said that one of the main journeys of parenting for her has been to try to show her kids a life outside Hollywood. She wants them to be exposed to plenty of different careers, especially if they don't have the same passion for acting and producing that she does.
"As a teenager, you only know what you know in the world," Reese continued. "You don't know what it's like to work in a foreign country or to be in medicine or science. I have friends in a lot of different fields, so I try to surround my kids with people who have incredible experiences in other industries. We can get really isolated here in Hollywood."
Speaking of Hollywood, plenty of Hollywood relationships get very messy when it comes to the kids — just look at Brad and Angelina. But Reese and Ryan seem to have a great agreement going, and both get to spend plenty of time with Ava and Deacon. Ryan once talked more about how they've been co-parenting, and it seems like things couldn't be better.
"As a divorced dad, we trade off so last year [for Thanksgiving], my kids and I went to my parents' in Delaware," he told Entertainment Tonight, per ABC News. "This year, they will be with their mom and I am shooting a movie up in Toronto. I'm going to fly down to Philly and just have a Thanksgiving with my parents, and the kids get to be with Reese."
"You have to get to that point as a divorced parent, as any parent, where you're not putting yourself first," Ryan added. Reese has been married to her second husband, Jim Toth, since 2011. According to Reese, the couple met in a very odd way.
"It happened out of the blue," she said. "This really drunk guy was hitting on me, making such an idiot of himself, yelling at me. He was like, [slurring, scowling, pointing finger in her face] 'You don't know me.' And I was like, 'Yeah, I know. I don't know you!'"
Luckily, that wasn't Jim — it was a friend of Jim's, whom Jim later apologized for.
Ava's dad, Ryan, seems to be single at the moment, but he has had a few relationships since breaking up with Reese. After he and Alexis Knapp broke up, the model realized she was pregnant — but it's unclear how much time Ryan gets with Kai, his daughter from that relationship. But knowing he gets plenty of time with Ava and Deacon has been nice. Even though things didn't work out with Reese, it seems the two still did their best to put their kids first.