Reese Witherspoon defends women who decide not to have their own children or be parents

REESE Witherspoon might have three kids of her own but the actress has an empowering message for children without them.

Reese Witherspoon is sticking up for women who choose not to have kids. Picture: Frederick Brown

REESE Witherspoon might have three kids of her own but she definitely isn’t going to judge you if you don’t have any.

The Legally Blonde actress recently headed to Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show Chelsea where the two celebrities got onto the topic of having children.

Witherspoon has three children. Ava, 17, Deacon, 13, and Tennessee, four.

Handler on the other hand, has been very vocal about not having, nor ever wanting to have children.

Reese with her children Ava and Deacon in 2015. Picture: Steve Granitz

In their chat, the talk show host brought up how having no kids meant she still felt quite young.

“I have [car insurance, a mortgage] but I still feel like a little girl,” she told Witherspoon.

“I don’t feel like that, because I have a little girl and I have two little boys. I feel like the grown up,” Witherspoon said.

When Handler asked the Walk The Line actress if she “ever felt irresponsible”, Witherspoon said that being a mum is an exhausting job.

“I think every mum feels like ‘If one day I ran away someone maybe would take them, because they’re adorable right’. There’s times I wish I could run off but I just enjoy it so much and I love being their mum and I’m really lucky to be their mum,” she said.

“I learn so much from them. Kids teach you about yourself,” Witherspoon added.

Witherspoon with her lookalike daughter.

But when Handler asked Witherspoon if that meant the comedian was somehow missing out, the Big Little Lies actress had an empowering message for her.

“No. I really respect and admire when women decide not to have kids, or men, because it is such a huge responsibility and if you in any way feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not sure’, then don’t do it,” she said.

Adding, “It’s too hard and I really respect people who are vocal about it too because that’s okay too. Every life choice is alright and I think it normalises it when we talk about it.”

“I can’t stand that. When we judge people for the life choices they make and it’s like, ‘can we just be over that, it’s 2017’. I’m so sick of that,” she ended.

And clearly the audience were happy with Witherspoon’s supportive message, erupting into applause.

Originally published as Reese Witherspoon defends women who decide not to have their own children or be parents