Witherspoon met American actor Ryan Phillippe at her 21st birthday party in March 1997, where she introduced herself to him by saying, "I think you're my birthday present." The couple became engaged in December 1998, and married in Charleston, South Carolina on June 5, 1999 at Wide Awake Plantation, following the release of their box office hit Cruel Intentions. They have two children: a daughter named Ava Elizabeth, born September 9, 1999, and a son Deacon Reese, born October 23, 2003. To be able to look after the children, the couple alternated shooting schedules for their films. By 2005, in response to news reports of Witherspoon and Phillippe receiving marriage counseling, Witherspoon stated, "We've done that in the past, and it's always struck me as odd that people grabbed onto that story and made it sound so negative." In December 2005, she said on The Oprah Winfrey Show, "In what capacity is working on yourself or your marriage a bad thing? What marriage isn't a journey? ... Nobody's perfect ... We all have our own set of problems."
