Reese Witherspoon has dug her phone from the depths of her luxury purse and handed it across the table an hour or so into lunch at L.A. ‘s members-only San Vicente Bungalows. On her screen is an artwork from Time magazine from four years ago, which accompanied a trend piece titled “Hollywood’s New Domestic Divas.”
The Oscar winner, who had just founded her retail brand, Draper James, at the time, appears in the centre, dressed ridiculously in a vacuum, an apron, and an evening gown. Despite her Honest company’s concentration on diapers and baby wipes, she’s surrounded by Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s holding a strawberry shortcake that Goop fanatics wouldn’t dare touch, and Jessica Alba, who’s clutching an iron.
Witherspoon, 43, has turned her rage into a legitimate empire centered on and for women. Her 3-year-old firm, Hello Sunshine, was born out of dissatisfaction — “people thinking you’re something you’re not,” she says, “or incapable of something you are” — and now has tendrils across television, cinema, podcasts, and publishing, with an online book club primed to one-day rival Oprah’s.
Although Witherspoon’s name isn’t on the company’s 50-person roster, she is the driving force behind every book selection, web series, and television appearance: an ultra-successful mom of three who still feels like she has something to prove every day. Jennifer Aniston, who co-stars alongside Witherspoon on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, describes her as “one of the most determined individuals I know.”
