Reese Witherspoon 'grieved' after older children left for university

Reese Witherspoon has recalled how she "grieved" when her older children left home to attend university.

During a recent appearance on The Interview podcast, The Morning Show actress described how she wept when her daughter, Ava, 26, and son, Deacon, 21, each left home.

Reese shares her older children with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and also has a 12-year-old son named Tennessee from her marriage to Jim Toth.

"It's really sad. I grieved their going to college and I cried in their rooms," she remembered. "One year, one of them didn't come home for Christmas and I sat in their bed and just cried."

Reese recalled how she grappled with the changes to her family dynamic.

"It's a loss because you do everything for them. You take the food out of your mouth, the coat off your back. You don't sleep," the 49-year-old continued. "You don't sleep because you're either taking care of their physical needs when they're little. Or when they're older, you're just so worried all the time that they're gonna get in a car accident or they're gonna come home or there's gonna be drugs involved."

Reese went on to note that she now considers her adult children to be "great friends".

"Then one day, it's kind of like, if you've done your job, you did the right things, they go. It makes me teary right now. It's just really hard. But you know you did the right things," she added. "Ava will call me and just be like a great friend. Deacon calls me all the time we hang out in New York, and he'll tell me about cool restaurants, and I'll be like, 'Great. Can you get a reservation?' Because he can get better reservations than I can now."

In addition, the Legally Blonde star joked that she is a different parent to Tennessee.

"I'm so tired. I've been parenting for 25 years," she smiled.