What Happened with Ryan Phillippe & Ava Phillippe?
Father-daughter relationships can sometimes be pretty complicated, and this appears to be true for Ryan Phillippe and his daughter, Ava Phillippe. According to The Daily Mail, the I Know What You Did Last Summer actor and his daughter, whom he shares with Reese Witherspoon, have a distant relationship.
The tension reportedly began after Phillippe and Witherspoon divorced in 2007. An insider revealed that “things were tense” between the parents while Ava was growing up, noting that it “took a really long time for Reese and Ryan to get to an amicable place, especially when it came to co-parenting.”
“She’s really close with her mom, so that couldn’t have been easy to see,” the source added. “But that was years ago. Things have gotten much better [between Witherspoon and Phillippe], but their kids are now adults.”
A few years after her divorce from Phillippe, the Oscar-winning actress married Jim Toth. According to sources, Toth was “dad” to Ava and her younger brother, Deacon. Even though Witherspoon and Toth eventually separated, he was an important part of their childhood.
“Ava was very close with her mom’s ex, Jim,” an insider told the outlet. “He was around for a lot of the important years she was growing up. He was a really good father figure to her. Jim had a big hand in helping raise Ava.”
The relationship between Phillippe and Ava was further strained by assault allegations against Phillippe. British model Elsie Hewitt, who dated Phillippe from April to July 2017, filed a civil lawsuit against him in September 2017 alleging domestic violence.
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Court documents obtained by People revealed that on July 3, 2017, Phillippe left a party early, allegedly feeling ignored by Hewitt. Later, in the early hours of July 4, Hewitt and a friend went to Phillippe’s house to grab her belongings. Hewitt claimed the situation escalated, with Phillippe allegedly “kicking, punching and throwing [Hewitt] down the stairs.”
Phillippe denied the allegations. Days before the trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 15, 2019, he and Hewitt finalized a settlement. The case was officially resolved in January 2020.
Nevertheless, the lawsuit reportedly created further distance between Phillippe and Ava, who The Daily Mail described as an “outspoken advocate on issues like body positivity, mental health awareness, and LGBTQ+ rights.”
An insider stated that Phillippe has “made an effort” to improve his relationship with Ava, but reconciliation will take time. “Ryan wants to repair his relationship with Ava. He’s made an effort to be apart of her life but it’s not being reciprocated,” the source explained. “He would never want to not be apart of her life. It’s a sad situation. Their relationship is not what it used to be.”