Reese Witherspoon says she was ‘completely alone’ while raising daughter Ava

Hollywood superstar Reese Witherspoon is sharing details about the challenges she encountered when she first became a mother. 

The Big Little Lies actor, 45, made an appearance on The View where she talked about the challenges she faced alone when she gave birth to daughter Ava at the age of 23.

"I lived away from my mother. My mom had a full-time job as a nurse and I had a baby really young — I was 23 years old — and so I was raising her by myself," said Witherspoon.

"I don't have any sisters, I don't have any aunts. I was alone in a new city, in Los Angeles, and I literally had no friends. I would cry."

"I didn't know what to do when the baby cried all night. I didn't understand what sleep training was,” she continued.

"Ava was up all night until she was probably 7 months old because I just didn't understand not to keep feeding her, because I thought she was hungry all the time,” she added.

Witherspoon welcomed her daughter now-22-year-old daughter Ava back in September 1999, two months after she married her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe. They welcomed their second child, son Deacon, now 17, in October 2003. The pair parted ways three years later in 2006.