Reese Witherspoon: 'Jim Toth relationship surprised me'

Reese Witherspoon has admitted that she was "surprised" to fall in love with husband Jim Toth.

The Water For Elephants actress married Hollywood agent Toth in March 2011 in a private ceremony held at her Ojai, California home.

Witherspoon has since revealed that she never would have expected to end up with someone like Toth and is overwhelmed by how different he is to every other man she's been involved with in the past.

"[Jim] really surprised me. You don't know who you're going to end up with. When I was 20, if you'd asked me ... I wouldn't have said Jim," Witherspoon said in a new interview with Elle.

"Jim's like, 'I'm gonna show you every day what a good partner is, what a good person is, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to do it so much that you're gonna get used to it'. I was like, 'What are you talking about? I've never had anybody like that in my life'."

Witherspoon has previously described her marriage to Toth as "a blessing" as he is a good step-father to her children from her previous marriage to Ryan Phillippe.

She recently signed on to play the mother of a murder victim in Devil's Knot.