'I feel really lucky': Reese Witherspoon opens up about life with Jim Toth as she poses under the big top in spectacular shoot
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 6:18 PM on 11th April 2011
Reese Witherspoon couldn't be more smitten with Jim Toth, and it seems her family - and fans - are rather taken with him too.
The Oscar-winning actress, 35, married the talent agent, 40, in an intimate ceremony at her Ojai, California, ranch last month after just over a year of dating.
In an interview with Vogue magazine to promote her new film Water For Elephants, she reveals she knew she had found the right man after receiving the seal of approval from some tough critics - her mother and group of fellow Southern women.
Leading lady: Reese Witherspoon poses under the big top for Vogue magazine to promote her new film, Water For Elephants
Happy couple: The Oscar-winner married Jim Toth last month
She recalled: 'It’s so cute: Over the holidays I was at a department store in L.A. with my friends, and these three women from Oklahoma came up to me, and they said' - laying on a thick Southern drawl - '"Reese. We are so happy for yeeew. We liiike this guy for yeeew."
'And I said, "You do?" "Yes, ma’am. We think he is a niiice man. We think he is going to treat you well and be good to yeeew." I was like, "Really?’ So sweet!" And I told them my mother likes him very much, too.'
Witherspoon, who posed alongside Tai the elephant in a spectacular photoshoot for the May issue, says she feels incredibly content in her new romance.
'I mean... it sort of indicates that at other times I was not in a good place. Which is true. I have had my share of heartbreak. But I think your friends really know when you are at your happiest.
Animal magnetism: The actress poses on set with Tai the elephant, who plays Rosie in the film
Cover girl: The star appears on the May issue of U.S. Vogue, out April 19
She adds: 'I think with life experience you go: I have no idea what's next. The unexpected doesn't surprise me anymore. It really shocked me then.'
The star also opened up about raising her children Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7, from her first marriage to her Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe.
'[Ava] is on the precipice of having her love affairs and her life,' she says. 'She is curious and artistic and very smart. She really surprises me.'
She continues: 'I thought you make little people in your image. But they are just nothing like me or their father. They are their own individuals.'
'I know it's corny, but being a parent to me is such a great privilege; that I get to chaperone these beautiful little souls through life. They astound me with their knowledge and their humour.'
Reese and her new husband took the children on their belated honeymoon to Belize last week.
Water for Elephants, which also stars Twighlight's Robert Pattinson, will be released in the U.S. on April 22.
Charmed life: Reese says she feels 'very lucky' with her new romance