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Reese Witherspoon’s parents at odds over dad’s alleged bigamy

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Reese Witherspoon’s parents are in an unusual legal dilemma: Mom Betty Witherspoon has accused her estranged husband, Reese’s dad, of bigamy.

Betty Witherspoon on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against John Draper Witherspoon and Tricianne Taylor, seeking to have their recent marriage annulled, the Tennessean reported. In the suit, Betty notes that, well, despite being separated since 1996, she and John are still married, which would seem to limit his ability to walk down the aisle with anyone else.

The Tennessean – which ran a paid announcement April 22 describing a Jan. 14 wedding that saw the groom, 70, sporting “a white linen suit accented with a gold Parthenon tie, gift from the bride” in an environment accented by cowboy boots and yellow roses – tracked down two marriage license applications by the couple, one of which had expired, and found no divorce documents for John Witherspoon.

The announcement, with a small picture of the couple on their wedding day, was viewable online Thursday among the paper’s NashvilleWeddings notices for the week of April 22.

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In her affidavit, the paper reported, Betty said that when she confronted John about the wedding, he said he didn’t know Tricianne and didn’t remember getting married. She said Taylor, 60, refused to talk to her and didn’t respond to a letter regarding the situation.

Betty and John Witherspoon appeared together in Hollywood in December 2010, seated next to Reese’s then-boyfriend Jim Toth when the actress received her star on the Walk of Fame.

The Witherspoons separated because of his problems with alcohol and hoarding, according to the lawsuit, in which Betty reportedly expressed concern that her husband is suffering from the early stages of dementia and is being taken advantage of, causing her to fear for his safety, her marital assets and the safety of her family, which includes two children and four grandchildren.

The affidavit also said John attempted to bring Tricianne to daughter Reese’s wedding last year in Ojai, but was thwarted when security didn’t have his date’s name on the guest list, according to USA Today.

Reese Witherspoon, who married Jim Toth on March 26, 2011, announced this March that she was pregnant with her third child. The actress has two kids, 12-year-old Ava and 8-year-old Deacon, with first husband Ryan Phillippe.

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Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.

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