Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe’s daughter Ava has apparently embraced left-wing gender theory, which is not too shocking for a young adult growing up in the Hollywood lifestyle. Ava Phillippe, 22, made the comments during a fan Q&A on her Instagram page, the Daily Mail reported.
A fan apparently asked her, “Do you like boys or girls,” to which Ava responded, “I’m attracted to… people! (Gender is whatever).” Ava has been in a relationship with Owen Mahoney, a fellow University of California Berkeley student.
Ava is the eldest daughter of Witherspoon and Phillippe, who also share 18-year-old son Deacon together. Witherspoon also has a 9-year-old son, Tennessee, with her current husband Jim Toth.
Witherspoon recently shared some of the challenges she faced parenting children as a famous actress. She spoke about how different her own childhood was during a conversation with InStyle.
“It’s an odd situation because I didn’t grow up famous. So [Ava is] living an experience that I did not have, and so are my sons,” the “Big Little Lies” star said. “We are lucky enough to have friends who grew up in Hollywood and can help give them advice on how to navigate.”
She continued, discussing how she’s letting her daughter experience her own life journey.
“Ava is so down-to-earth. She wants to do great things in the world,” Witherspoon told InStyle. “She’s studying and learning and trying to find herself. It’s a big thing in life to try different things and figure out what is really your path.”
And while Ava is growing up in the internet age with access to all kinds of information, Witherspoon previously shared how her own background was a lot more sheltered. The A-lister admitted during an interview with “Legally Blonde” co-star Regina King last year that she “didn’t understand what homosexuality was” until moving to Los Angeles when she was just beginning her career as an actress, according to Page Six.
“No one spoke to me about sexuality when I was a teenager,” Witherspoon told King. “I didn’t understand what homosexuality was. My grandparents didn’t explain it, my parents didn’t explain it. I had to learn from somebody I met on an audition in Los Angeles.”
The Academy Award winner was born in New Orleans and raised in Nashville. She now co-owns a media company and clothing line.
During a 2006 appearance on The Chelsea Handler Show, Witherspoon reflected on her upbringing with a bit of criticism.
“I grew up, obviously, in the South and there is amazing, wonderful connectivity and people are loving and communitive,” the actress said. “But there is a tiny aspect of it, people [that] use parts of the Bible in order to express their intolerance and their hate and they manipulate it.”
She also incorporated a real-life conversation she had with her grandmother about homosexuality into the TV series “Little Fires Everywhere.”
“She said: ‘Homosexuality is very rare, Reese. That’s not a thing that happens very often.’ And we put it in the script,” Witherspoon told Variety.