Reese Witherspoon's birthday blues: actress announces divorce from shortly after birthday celebrations

We wished Reese Witherspoon a happy birthday last week, as the actress-turned-producer celebrated her 47th birthday shortly after being celebrated as a mum during Mother’s Day. But with such elation, things have a tendency to come down very quickly, as the actress and her husband, Jim Toth, officially announced their divorce over the weekend. 

Taking to her Instagram account, Witherspoon told her 29,328,021 followers on Friday: "We have some personal news to share… It is with a great deal of care and consideration that we have made the difficult decision to divorce. We have enjoyed so many wonderful years together and are moving forward with deep love, kindness, and mutual respect for everything we have created together.

"Our biggest priority is our son and our entire family as we navigate this next chapter. These matters are never easy and extremely personal. We truly appreciate everyone's respect for our family's privacy at this time. Reese and Jim."

The public acknowledgement of the divorce stings a little more for Witherspoon and Toth, as the pair were about to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday. The pair married on March 26 2011 and have one child together - Tennessee James Toth, born in 2012. Witherspoon and Toth are believed to have met in February 2010 through Toth's work as a talent agent at Creative Artist Industry, where Witherspoon was a client.

As painful as this must be for Witherspoon and her family, she is not alone in the feeling that, despite being ready to celebrate an accomplishment or an upcoming event (marriage, film debut), there’s always something that can ruin someone’s celebratory moods - sometimes including life or death situations…

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde made headlines in 2021 when it was reported that her ex-partner, Jason Sudeikis, had filed court documents that included reference to her "careless, abusive and neglectful conduct" as a parent.

This came at a time that Wilde was involved in the promotion of her film, Don’t Worry Darling, which featured her then beau Harry Styles; while on stage promoting her film at CineCon in April 2022, a fan approached her on the stage to hand over an envelope. It wasn’t a fan however - it was someone delivering custody papers on behalf of former flame Jason Sudeikis. 

Will Smith

One of the more widely known incidents of someone celebrating while dealing with bad news takes us once again back to the Oscars 2022 ceremony; that Oscar slap. It should have been a night of feel good celebration as Will Smith, perennial Hollywood good guy and constant bridesmaid during his previous Oscar nominations, finally got the flowers many have felt he deserved with King Richard.

But we all know what happened, which is now part of Oscar ceremony folklore. It took one innocuous enough joke from Chris Rock, noted for being an envelope pusher with this comedy, about Jada Pinkett-Smith and then the slap heard around the world took place. Smith was captured after the event, earning his Best Actor award, celebrating at a number of parties.

But the cold light of day finally set in and Will Smith was condemned from many avenues for his behaviour and lack of self-awareness celebrating shortly afterwards. He later went on the press rounds - not just to promote Emancipation but also an apology tour of sorts. Chris Rock, for what it’s worth, bided his time before unleashing into Smith in his latest standing, Selective Outrage - netting a sizable Netflix royalty cheque in the process.

Lea Michelle

It was the role that former Glee actress Lea Michelle was born to play, at least given the amount of times she has referenced the Broadway musical, Funny Girl, throughout interviews and even on the hit show itself.

But while Michelle was celebrating taking over the role from Beanie Feldstein, allegations of her behaviour towards other cast and crew members were revealed. Specifically, former co-star Samantha Ware accused Michele of making her time on the set of "Glee" a "living hell" due to racially charged microaggressions and bullying behaviour.

Following Ware's accusation, other actors came forward with similar stories of Michele's behaviour on set. These allegations resulted in Michele losing several endorsement deals and being dropped from the cast of the TV show "The Mayor."

CM Punk 

Not all dramas that wrestlers contend with are restricted to the wrestling ring or writers scripting storylines. Not for one Phil Brooks, aka CM Punk, who revealed in his tell all podcast on The Art of Wrestling how petty he felt the company were after walking out from World Wrestling Entertainment in 2014 due to, among many things, creative issues.

That didn’t stop the WWE from enacting one of the most petty forms of revenge on the popular wrestler; explaining to podcast host Colt Cabana that on the day of his wedding to another former WWE star, AJ Lee, he received a special delivery - a letter explaining that he was being fired from the company.

In a podcast years later, then WWE chairman Vince McMahon apologised for the timing of the letter and said he had no idea it would appear when it did. Probably much like Jason Sudeikis didn’t know custody papers would be served while his ex-romance was on stage presenting her directorial effort. Needless to say, Punk wasn’t buying the excuse. 

Kevin Smith

While Kevin Smith should have been celebrating another successful performance to his fans and fellow patrons of the View Askewniverse, instead he nearly lost his life had it not been for some quick efforts of workers behind the scene at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California in 2018.

Smith initially thought he was suffering from food poisoning, but the pain in his chest and left arm became so severe that he decided to go to the hospital.

At the hospital, Smith underwent emergency surgery to clear a 100% blockage in his left anterior descending artery, also known as the "widowmaker" artery, which is a major blood vessel that supplies the heart with oxygen-rich blood.

Since his heart attack, Smith has become an advocate for heart health and has shared his story with the goal of encouraging others to take their own heart health seriously.

The episode was also included as part of his last film, Clerks III, in which the character of Randall also had the same heart attack his creator, Kevin Smith, had. Art imitating life once again for Kevin Smith.