Jennifer Garner says Reese Witherspoon supported her during ‘very public, very hard moment’

Jennifer Garner has revealed that Reese Witherspoon was there for her while she was going through a public hardship.

At a Saturday panel discussion at Hello Sunshine’s Inaugural Shine Away Event in Los Angeles, the Alias alum explained that Witherspoon had supported her during a “very public, very hard moment in my life”.

During the panel with Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and moderator AT&T chief marketing and growth officer Kellyn Smith Kenny, Garner shared her story: “I think back to being pregnant. This one [Witherspoon] was sitting next to me... I think back to going through a very public, very hard moment in my life. She was right there and the way I needed to get through it was dance cardio.”

While the Juno actor didn’t disclose which public hardship she was alluding to, Garner went on to share their experience dancing their hearts out amid all the stress.

“And I danced cardio-d so hard, we broke her foot, but she kept going!” she continued to add. “It was like, okay, we worked out at seven on vacation, we’re going to work out again at two. She was like: ‘I’m going to be there. I’m going to be there.’”

Garner shares three children - daughters Violet, 17, and Seraphina, 13, and son Samuel, 11 - with Ben Affleck, who she married in 2005 and divorced in 2018. Affleck went on to marry former flame Jennifer Lopez in a lavish ceremony in July 2022, while Garner has been dating CaliGroup CEO John Miller on and off since 2018.

Later on in the panel discussion, Garner gushed about Witherspoon’s steadfast support as she navigated parenting for the first time, saying: “She’ll also look at you and say: ‘Okay, you need to be finding a preschool. This kid is two and a half and they need to start next month. You actually have to get on this.’”

The event on Saturday, Shine On, was the first hosted by Witherspoon’s media production company Hello Sunshine to be the first of many in-person events for the Hello Sunshine community. The 13 Going On 30 star shared that before Shine On, Witherspoon had long before provided spaces for her and other women to speak freely about their experiences within the entertainment industry.

“Those meetings happened at Reese’s house. And it was the first time I’d ever sat down with that many actresses in the same room that we weren’t passing each other in an award show in big dresses, where we just sat,” Garner continued. “We’ve been siloed off the one place.”

“The place that doesn’t happen, the place that started the change where that no longer can happen is Hello Sunshine. It’s just true,” Garner added.

The Dallas Buyers Club actor wasn’t the only one to sing Witherspoon’s praises, with Kaling adding that the Legally Blonde star is “as a friend, the person who can tell you tough things and you believe her.”

On her Instagram story, Witherspoon posted a photo of her and her fellow Hollywood stars and wrote beside the picture, “Loved, loved, loved talking with these two about the power of connection.”