Reese Witherspoon Slams Renée Zellweger Criticism: ''It’s Cruel and Rude and Disrespectful''

Actress was on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter

Reese Witherspoon is standing up for her friend Renée Zellweger.

In the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, the A-lister speaks out about the recent controversy over Zellweger's appearance and slams haters for criticizing her face.

"It's horrible. It's cruel and rude and disrespectful," she told the magazine, choosing to dive right into the matter and not mince words. "I can go on and on. It bothers me immensely."

Shortly after Zellweger attended Elle's Women in Hollywood Awards, where all the hullabaloo first began, she explained why her looks may have changed.

"I'm glad folks think I look different! I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows," Zellweger, told People, "It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth which doesn't exist won't get off my porch until I answer the door."

The Oscar winner added, "My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. For a long time I wasn't doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn't allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things."

Zellweger also shared, "People don't know me in my 40s. People don't know me [as] healthy for a while. Perhaps I look different. Who doesn't as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I'm happy."