Well well well.. if it isn’t the consequence of my own actions.

Last Thursday (March 23) I wrote:

There’s been a teeny bit of chatter about the state of her marriage but to me, Reese’s Instagram is all business that is curated to look like pleasure. It’s brand building (and it has worked!), not necessarily a true reflection of her family life or even her work (because she works really hard and probably often works late and is up early). So I don’t think him not showing up on her page a lot is an indication of anything. 

 

And then what happened? Reese Witherspoon made a fool out of me! In a classic A-list gossip move, Reese Witherspoon released a social media statement late Friday afternoon, confirming her divorce from Jim Toth. It’s a succinct and professional statement with no hint of anything scandalous. As far as divorce announcements go, this is surgical.  

 

As some gossip accounts pointed out, Reese had not featured Jim on her Instagram for some time but my (incorrect) assumption was that it didn’t mean much because Reese is heavily focused on her production business. I was wrong because social media often does give us clues (which is why I write Celebrity Social Media five days a week!) but I misread this situation as a business decision (to not put her marriage front and center) rather than a personal one. 

But of course it’s both. Jim was involved in Hello Sunshine as a co-owner (in 2021 it was acquired for $900 million) but it never felt like these two were professionally or artistically intertwined like some couples are. Part of the reason for that is Reese has done an excellent job of building her brand without giving up every detail of her life and more crucially, Jim is not famous. He’s probably very well known in Reese’s circle, but he’s not a PEOPLE magazine draw. That’s why this tweet made me laugh so hard. 

WHO’S JIM? 

 

Those factors, combined with the precision with which she executed this announcement (she continued to promote her work on her Instagram stories), indicates that this will pass quickly for her. There’s not a hint of scandal and it seems like these two people just went in different directions. 

Should social media have been the clue? Maybe. But there was a much bigger indication that this was happening and it’s something Sarah has pointed to with other celebrities who are in flux: real estate. From 2020, which US Weekly reports as the time Reese and Jim decided to prepare for a split, they began unloading real estate: two homes in Malibu, one in LA and one in Nashville, all in the span of a few years. It’s not unusual for people with a lot of money to switch up their portfolio but in this case, it did mean something. 

 

As for Reese, what can we expect? She’s dated famous men (like Jake G.) and civilians, so she’ll go wherever she wants to next. That’s never been the most interesting thing about Reese. Her career continues to be very interesting as she works hard and she gets sh-t done at an impressive rate. I’m not even going to activate the Gossip Genie because clearly my psychic abilities are weak in this scenario. But, and I’m just having fun here, Chris Pine (who she worked with on that really bad spy rom-com with Tom Hardy) might be single now, right? Just an idea! I just took a massive L in the Reese department so a win would be nice.