Reese Witherspoon Son Graduation Brings Exes Together at NYU
reese witherspoon son graduation brought Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe back into the same frame on Friday, when they attended Deacon Phillippe’s New York University ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. They posed for photos with their 22-year-old son after the ceremony, with Ava Phillippe also in attendance.
Radio City Music Hall Friday
The graduation gave the family a public checkpoint after years of separate lives and repeated reunions around Deacon’s milestones. Witherspoon and Phillippe were married from 1999 to 2008, and they have continued to co-parent their two children over the years.
Witherspoon wore a blue midi dress with a white blazer, a cream handbag and heels. Phillippe chose a white button-down shirt, black trousers and Nike sneakers, a sharper contrast than the occasion itself.
Deacon, Ava, Tennessee
Deacon was not the only child in the room. Ava, 26, was there too, and Witherspoon’s ex-husband Jim Toth attended with their 13-year-old son Tennessee, extending the family turnout beyond the original pair that drew attention.
That larger gathering fits a pattern the family has already established. Witherspoon and Phillippe met at her 21st birthday party in 1997, co-starred in “Cruel Intentions” two years later, reunited for Deacon’s homeschool graduation in 2022, and turned up together again at his album release party for “A New Earth” in April 2023.
Ryan Phillippe 2024 Post
In 2024, Phillippe wrote on Instagram Stories, “We were hot and drenched in late ’90s angst,” followed by “(such a cooler time than today).” The line was self-aware, but Friday’s appearance did the real work: it showed the old pair still showing up when it counts, even as their lives now include other partners, other children and a son finishing college.
Kate Hudson’s eldest son, Ryder Robinson, also graduated from New York University on Friday, and Kurt Russell chatted with and hugged Witherspoon during the day. For readers watching the family rather than the ceremony, the useful takeaway is simple: the public split never became a public rupture, and Deacon’s graduation showed that arrangement still holds.
