Ryan Phillippe thought Reese Witherspoon marriage "would be easier than it was"

Ryan Phillippe has confessed he was not prepared for the flurry of attention that would follow marrying Reese Witherspoon.

The 33-year-old actor, who was speaking to Britain's The Times Magazine to promote his Iraq war film, Stop-Loss, dodged questions about his relationship with costar Abbie Cornish, but did hint at the problems of a high-profile Hollywood marriage.

He said: "I fooled myself into believing it would be easier than it was. To have people speculating constantly about the state of your relationship, casting aspersions and telling lies ... It took more of a toll than I was immediately aware of."

Ryan, who has a daughter Ava, aged eight, and a son Deacon, four with the Legally Blonde star, said the downside of fame was an attitude toward photographers that has rubbed off on his daughter. "She's aware and it creates in her a lot of anxiety, which is partly my fault," he said.

"When Ava was very young, I was young too. I'd get ... visibly angry at the paparazzi back then.

"She was my first child, and my instinct was to protect her."

He added that Deacon is not affected in the same way. "Mainly because since his birth I've realized that you've got to make it seem like less of a big deal. Ava to this day, though ... It breaks my heart to think about it, hearing her say, 'My friends at school saw a picture of me in a magazine and they made fun because I was carrying a blanket'."

But the actor says he has found a way to use the attention for good purposes, "because these pictures go around the world and untold numbers of people see them. One organization told me their web hits went up 2,000 percent overnight after one such image was syndicated."