2006 The couple partied after Witherspoon won her Oscar. “They don’t really talk about stresses,” Phillippe’s mother told PEOPLE in August. “They’re very private people.” Photo by: Kevin Winter / Getty
Reese & Ryan: End of the Line| Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe
For now family and friends are trying to puzzle out what finally broke up a couple who had stood strong against so many odds – from their youth (she was 23 when they married and she became a mother) to Witherspoon’s soaring fame (the Oscar–winning star of Walk the Line and Legally Blonde is among Hollywood’s highest paid actors, with a salary in the $25 million league). Phillippe always brushed off speculation that he resented his wife’s success. “She is great at what she does,” he told the Los Angeles Times last month. “I’m proud of her.” And by all accounts, it showed. “The way they would look at each other–the little loving glances–it was obvious they were in love,” says Heidi Pascoe, Reese’s stunt double in Walk the Line and Just Like Heaven.