Reese Witherspoon shares snap with rarely seen brother as he celebrates milestone birthday

Fans are very much familiar with Reese Witherspoon’s ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and their children Ava and Deacon, who look remarkably like their parents. Not as many people, though, know about Reese’s family pre-marriage - which is likely why the 46-year-old actor’s latest Instagram post caught everyone’s attention.

Reese, who last year became Hollywood’s richest actress, shared a photo of herself with her older brother John on Instagram in celebration of his special birthday.

"Happy 50th birthday to my big Bro John!! 🌟," Reese wrote in the caption to the photo, which shows the siblings at a restaurant while smiling to the camera. "Thank you for teaching me how to change a flat tire, skip rocks on the lake, build a fort in the backyard and catch so many frogs 🐸You always make life an adventure! I love you Brother. 🥰"

Although the upload is a rare sighting of the brother-and-sister duo, this actually isn't the first time that Reese, who led a backlash to Roe v Wade abortion leak a few months ago, took to the social media platform to celebrate her sibling. 

Just last year, the star posted a photo of the two sitting behind a birthday cake. "Happy Birthday to the best BIG brother a girl could ask for," she wrote next to the photo back then. "Always being there for me & my kids. Being my biggest supporter sinday Day 1. Love you, Brother John!"

In addition to her odes on Instagram, Reese has gone on the record about her relationship with her only brother in past interviews. 

"We have that inexplicable bond of childhood," Reese said to Vanity Fair back in 2020. "Two people forged in the same fire. It’s interesting because we’re very different, but we manage to love and care for each other with a ferocity that defies words. I call him Brother. He calls me Sister. Very Southern sibling stuff."

Born Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Academy Award-winning actor has repeatedly spoken up about the way growing up in the south of the United States has shaped her worldview - for better or worse.

"I grew up, obviously, in the South and there is amazing, wonderful connectivity and people are loving and communitive," she said while appearing on Chelsea Handler's Netflix talk show Chelsea in 2017. "But there is a tiny aspect of it, people [that] use parts of the Bible in order to express their intolerance and their hate and they manipulate it."

As usual, we appreciate Reese's candid nature - and wish her brother John a very happy birthday!