Reese Witherspoon reacts to ex Ryan Phillippe's infamous pay gap quip

Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon admitted she was a bit ‘flummoxed’ after her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe’s quip about their pay gap.

During a chat on the HFPA in Conversation podcast, the Legally Blonde star, 44, looked back at the infamous quip and admitted that she was caught off guard.

The pair back during the 200 Academy Awards—prior to their 2006 split—had taken the stage as presenters in the Oscar for Best Makeup category. Witherspoon had asked her then-husband if she could read to which he joked: “You make more than I do. Go ahead.”

Reacting to that nearly two decades later, Witherspoon said on Friday: “I forgot that ever happened.”

“He did say that, and no, it wasn’t scripted. He didn’t tell me he was going to say that before it happened on air. So, I was a little bit flummoxed in the moment,” she admitted.

“There are so few women who make a lot of money that sometimes they are shamed for it and sometimes they are expected to give more and do more and be more to others in the same position that a male movie star would not be expected to and that’s just the double standard that exists in our society,” she went on to say.

“Women need to talk about money and how they made money and not feel ashamed of it,” she continued.

She further shared how her daughter, Ava, back in the second grade had returned from school embarrassed after someone said her mother is one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors.

“I said, ‘Don’t ever feel ashamed of a woman making money.’ There are women all over this world who don’t have an opportunity or an education or the ability to make money,” she said.

“Don’t ever feel bad about your mom making money, and don’t ever feel bad if you make money, and don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed if it’s more than your partner,” she added.

Witherspoon shares two kids, Ava, 21, and Deacon, 17, with her ex-husband.