Ryan Phillippe’s Best Parenting Quotes About Raising Ava and Deacon

More On: dads

Ryan Phillippe shares daughter Ava and son Deacon with his ex-wife, Reese Witherspoon — read more

Dad duty! Ryan Philippe keeps his family life private but has given rare glimpses into raising his kids over the years.

The actor started dating Reese Witherspoon in 1997, and the Cruel Intentions stars wed two years later in South Carolina. In September 1999, the Big Little Lies alum gave birth to their daughter, Ava. Deacon was born in October 2003.

Starting their family at such a young age was a struggle for the Whiskey in a Teacup author, she told Drew Barrymore in September 2020.

“I was just like every other mom trying to figure it out — and dad out there, and partner and grandparent who’s raising a child. There’s a lot of, first of all, compromise,” the Louisiana native explained at the time. “You take the food out of your mouth, clothes off your back, the sleep out of your life. But every bit of it, every bit of that sacrifice is truly worth it because you feel like that’s what makes me wake up on a Sunday. It’s not movies or my job, it’s my kids.”

The Oscar winner was worried about maintaining her career, adding, “I didn’t know if I was gonna have steady work, too. I wasn’t popular. I had made movies, but I hadn’t established myself as someone who could demand that it shoot close to my kid’s school. I didn’t have any real power or leverage within my industry.”

The Morning Show star split from Phillippe in 2006, moving on with Jim Toth. They wed in March 2011 in California, welcoming their son, Tennessee, in September of the following year.

As for Phillippe, the Delaware native also had a daughter named Kai with Alexis Knapp, born in 2011. He is no longer in a relationship with the Pitch Perfect star.

“She looks like [me]. A lot more so now,” Knapp told E! News in June 2012. “They always come out looking like the dads because men are just fat and puffy and can’t open their eyes too much. Today she stood up and stood there for, like, 20 seconds. I was like, ‘Are you going to walk? What are you doing? What are you doing?’ But then eventually she was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go down.’ I think she can do a lot more than she realizes, but she’s amazing and she says my name all the time.”

Keep scrolling to read the Shooter alum’s quotes about raising children over the years, from coparenting with Witherspoon to bonding with Deacon.