Reese Witherspoon met her current husband Jim Toth when his drunken friend tried to chat her up.

The 'Water For Elephants' actress revealed she was approached by an intoxicated man at a party before Jim intervened to save both Reese and his pal.

She explained in an interview with the US edition of Elle magazine: "It happened out of the blue. This really drunk guy was hitting on me, making such an idiot of himself, yelling at me. He was like, 'You don't know me.' And I was like, 'Yeah, I know. I don't know you!' Jim came over and said, 'Please excuse my friend. He's just broken up with someone.' Jim was a really good friend, pulling him out of that situation. That's just kind of who he is, a really good person."

Reese, 35 - who has two children Ava, 11 and Deacon, seven, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe - also explained she loves Jim's caring side.

She said: "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.'

"I used to be afraid to travel and afraid to leave my house, afraid to leave my kids - that something horrible was going to happen.

"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."