Actor Ryan Phillippe has slammed reports that he split up from his ex-wife Reese Witherspoon because he was jealous of her blossoming Hollywood career.

The couple parted ways in 2006, soon after Witherspoon won her first Oscar, while Phillippe just got some critical acclaim for films like ‘Crash’ and ‘Stop-Loss’.

Recently, rumours were rife that the pair drifted apart because the actor couldn’t handle his wife’s success.

However, the actor has insisted that he was proud of her, and was never jealous of her success.

“That was the least of our problems. I was always really proud of her success. I’m not a competitive person, and I have no aspirations to be a giant in this industry. I like making movies, but I never had designs on making $25 million a picture,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.