Reese Witherspoon "grieved" her eldest children when they left home for college

Reese made the admission on the latest episode of the New York Times' The Interview podcast, and told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro: "I grieved their going to college, and I cried in their rooms.

"One year, one of them didn't come home for Christmas, and I sat in their bed and just cried."

The Morning Show star said she felt a "loss" because the kids were not around.

Reese - who is also mom to her 12-year-old son, Tennessee, whom she has with her 55-year-old ex-husband Jim Toth - explained: "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.

"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."

But the Legally Blonde star accepted the fact that her children have to grow up.

Reese added: "You just have every worry the parents have, you know? And 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."

Elsewhere in the podcast, Reese also shared that Ava and Deacon have become "incredible friends" to her since they moved out of the family home.

The Big Little Lies actress explained: "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?' Cause he can get better reservations than I can now!

"But it's awesome to have your kids become adults."