They’ve been rumoured to have been dating since they were first spotted together last summer but now a year on, Reese Witherspoon and Olivier Haarmann have ‘hard launched’ their relationship after being photographed getting seriously cosy on a yacht.

Holidaying off the coast of St. Tropez – France’s picturesque playground for the rich and famous – Reese, 49, and German financier Oliver, 57, appeared to ignore the paps altogether as they were seen kissing in the sea and cuddling aboard their luxury vessel.

Reese’s PDA marks the first time she has gone public with a new romance following the breakdown of her 12 year marriage to talent agent Jim Toth in 2023.

And last week, Reese got super excited over an engagement – sadly it wasn’t her own.

Taking to social media, the actress and producer sweetly squealed over Taylor Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, admitting that she’d been forced to stop work just so she could look at ‘the ring’.

But while the mum-of-three, who was also married to Ryan Phillipe between 1999 and 2006, clearly has wedding fever, a source now tells Closer that when it comes to her own romantic life, Reese has put the brakes on moving too fast with Oliver as she heals from the scars of her previous two marriages.

The insider tells us, ‘It’s not a done deal between Reese and Oliver, not even close, and they still have to prove to each other that their physical chemistry, which is definitely there, can stand the test of time.

‘Reese isn’t in any kind of hurry to get married again, and her and Oliver’s respective high net worths means getting married would come with a whole host of very unromantic business considerations.

‘It’s just not where her head is at with this relationship. She’s still getting over the end of her last marriage and the balancing act she and Jim Toth have to manage as co-parents to their son Tennessee. Reese and Oliver are happy, and they love their romantic getaways, but there’s a lot of ‘wait-and-see’ when it comes to what the future holds for the two of them.’

It was Reese’s first marriage to Ryan Phillipe that saw her transform from teen heartthrob to a young blushing bride.

While fans swooned over their on-screen romance in ‘90s cult movie, Cruel Intentions, it was later revealed that the pair had actually fallen for each other when Ryan attended Reese’s 21st birthday party two years prior. At the time she had walked up to him and declared, ‘I think you’re my birthday present’.

The couple wed in 1999 and went on to welcome daughter Ava, now 25, and Deacon, 21, before divorcing in 2006 after allegations surfaced that Ryan had been involved in an affair with his Stop-Loss co-star, Abbie Cornish.

While Ryan moved on with Abbie, after a relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal Reese later found love with Jim, whom she described as a ‘really good person’ after meeting him at a friend’s house where he was forced to stop his drunk friend from chatting her up.

Marrying in 2011, Reese later got candid about their love story, revealing that she had doubts as to how to raise a blended family.

She said at the time, ‘Somebody close to me once said, ‘Oh, no man will ever accept your children.’ And I just thought it was the most horrifying thing someone has ever said to me in my entire life. I was determined to find somebody who would make that not true. And I got lucky. I did. I got very lucky, and he’s wonderful.’

The couple welcomed son Tennessee, now 12, in 2012, before announcing they were divorcing just ahead of their 12th wedding anniversary in March 2023.

And while she and Jim have remained close co-parents and insisted that their bombshell divorce was amicable, the source says that after two marriages, self-confessed romantic Reese is feeling more cynical about finding her own Happy Ever After. 

‘Reese has two marriages under her belt so of course there’s a big part of her that worries it’s just not for her. She’s always been a romantic, and she still is, but her ideas about marriage have drastically changed,’ the insider says.

‘After two divorces she’s a heck of a lot more cynical. When she married Ryan she fully expected it to last forever and she totally bought into that and, as a result, she put up with way more than she should have because she felt obligated to make it work. She finally put her foot down and left him, but it really should have happened way sooner.’

But while Ryan’s alleged unfaithfulness was undoubtedly heart-breaking for Reese, the insider says that after celebrating their 11th anniversary just months previously, the sudden breakdown of her stable marriage to Jim left Reese in shock.

The source says, ‘Then she met Jim and he totally swept her off her feet and she thought she’d finally found her perfect match. And for a long time it was pretty perfect between them. But then about a decade in, things started to really change.

‘Just like when she was with Ryan, she tried desperately to hang on and fix things but nothing worked and eventually all the stability she thought she had completely crashed and burned around her, it was very painful and not something she ever would have predicted when she married Jim.’

Now, while Oliver appears to be a steady presence in Reese’s life, with sources reporting that The Morning Show star ‘loves’ that he is ‘not into Hollywood’, the source says Reese is afraid of history repeating itself.

‘Her response was to build a wall around herself, so that she’d never be let down like that again. Oliver has broken through the wall, but only to an extent. The idea of getting married again and being that vulnerable, is still not something she can really wrap her head around,’ they explain.

‘She’s not looking to date anyone else but she’s also very clear that she doesn’t want the pressure that comes with marriage. To her, staying unmarried is actually the more romantic choice right now and Oliver doesn’t seem to have any issue with that. It may change down the line, as Tennessee gets older and needs her less, but for now she’s very happy to keep things the way they are.’

Insiders also revealed that Reese has introduced Oliver – who shares two grown up sons with his ex-wife, a fellow financier – to her children, and the source confirms that they are the most important people in her life right now.

The insider says, ‘The number one thing you have to know about Reese is that being a mum is way more important to her than whatever is going on her love life, and she still has a young son to look after and her two older kids who are just finding their way into adulthood and are around the house all the time.

‘That’s where a lot of her spare time is going, and Oliver has had to get used to that. Everything going on with Oliver takes a back seat to Reese’s time with her kids.’