Reese Witherspoon is proud she was able to "save" herself as a single mom.

The 48-year-old actress - who has Ava, 25, and Deacon, 20, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and Tennessee, 12, with former spouse Jim Toth - told how she "found" her voice in the wake of her first marriage ending in 2006 because she had no one else to rely on to make decisions for her.

Appearing on a panel during her company Hello Sunshine's Shine Away event in Los Angeles on Saturday (05.10.24), the 'Legally Blonde' actress was asked if there was an "a-ha" moment where she "found" her voice, and she explained there are "so many" times, but what she loves about her company is they "look for stories that women saved themselves".

She added: "Because every woman in this room has saved herself, [from a] financial situation, an education situation, a bad relationship, you had to save yourself.

"There's a moment in all of our lives when you realise, no wait, no one's coming to help, no one's coming to make that decision.

"For me, I have to make that decision. I've had a lot of those. Being a single mom when I was in my late twenties, I had to make a lot of decisions for my two kids and a lot of financial decisions, too."

Reese also spoke of the importance of recognising when you are "not good at something" and being able to ask for help, and how she realised that when Hello Sunshine had a string of awards success with 'Big Little Lies', 'Wild', and 'Gone Girl', but was struggling to keep afloat.

She said: "I had four employees and I couldn't keep the lights on. I remember the accountant calling me going, you didn't make enough money producing those three things to keep four employees. And I was like, ‘I'm doing something wrong'...

"The other thing was that I think it was an important moment for me to realise there's things I didn't know and I had to reach out for help, and that's when I had a friend help me create a business plan.

"It's also good to know what you're not good at, and I know what I'm really good at, but it's also important to go, ‘I'm not good at something.’ "

Sarah Harden became CEO of the company in 2017 and Reese would ask her "literally the dumbest questions you can possibly imagine" and they turned Hello Sunshine around.

She added: "Vulnerability I think is what led to our success.

"You need to find a partner. If you're super creative, find a partner who's really good at business or really good at finance.

"We have to have that partnership, too."