A touching tribute! Reese Witherspoon wrote a sweet shout-out for her daughter Ava Phillippe’s 21st birthday.
“Wow! How is it possible that this little girl is now 21 years old?” the Big Little Lies alum, 44, captioned her Wednesday, September 9, Instagram slideshow, which included a mother-daughter photo and a throwback shot. “Happy Birthday to my sweet girl who has become the most incredible young woman. Her kindness, her compassion and her huge heart never cease to amaze me. Ava, there aren’t enough words to describe how proud I am of everything you’ve already accomplished. I cannot wait to see ALL the Good you will put into this world. I love you so much.”
Ava commented on the social media upload: “Love you the most, mama!”
Joshua Jackson, Jennifer Garnerand more celebrities wished the model a “happy birthday.” The 13 Going on 30 star, 48, added, “And congratulations on 21 mom years, Reese!”
The Whiskey in a Teacup author shares Ava and her eldest son, Deacon, 16, with her ex-husband, Ryan Phillippe. The actress is also the mother of son Tennessee, 7, with her husband, Jim Toth.
Witherspoon and Ava are especially close and “just love being together,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in June 2018. “Reese and Ava talk several times a day and they go to each other for everything. [Ava] has learned so much by being with her mom and traveling the world with her.”
The Louisiana native opened up the following year about how “hard” it was sending her eldest off to college.
“It’s weird when your children go away,” the Oscar winner told Ellen DeGeneres at the time. “I never imagined how it felt for my mom. I might have gone into her empty room, laid down on her bed and cried when she [left].”
Witherspoon added that Ava was thankfully “coming back,” explaining, “I thought she would be gone. I never came back. I went to college for one year and then I started making movies and I moved to L.A. and I never came back. Sorry, Mom. My poor mom.”
