Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal split in early December after nearly three years together.

According to People, Jake was pressing for a marriage with Reese, who has two children with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe: Ava, 10, and Deacon, 6.

“As much as everyone thinks they’re right there, they’re really not near the whole marriage thing,” a source said last spring. “Jake would marry her tomorrow, but Reese doesn’t want to go there yet, even though he would like to.”

“There’s a huge attraction between them, and they’ve become a team, partners,” the insider continues. “but Jake can be a little overbearing at times, and Reese is really happy with life right now. Why screw that up or change a good thing?”

“She felt pressured to wed again – but she wasn’t ready,” an insider told US Weekly.

“She couldn’t give Jake enough, and she got cold feet,” the source added. “From the beginning, Jake wanted all of her, and she knew he deserved someone who could give him that. He wanted to be together at all times, and it became a lot for her to juggle with work and the kids. When it comes down to it, she isn’t ready to get married and he is.”

The Oscar winner was also “really worried” that she and her younger beau, 29, “didn’t have enough in common” and that she wasn’t ready for parenting.

According to the source, Reese initiated the separation, but it was “mutual and amicable.”

The “super-type A” actress was also concerned about losing time with her children to her partner as a hands-on mother. “When she was giving all of her energy to Jake, she felt like she wasn’t giving her kids enough,” the insider claims.

“He was great with the kids, but she felt like he didn’t get the whole scope of what that entailed,” a source tells the magazine.

According to another insider, the separation, which took place in early December, “broke [Jake’s] heart.”

In 2006, they met on the set of the film Rendition in Morocco. “Jake went and introduced himself to Reese,” a source close to both of them said. “Things slowly progressed from there,” she said, “but it was never something she thought would happen from the start. She just kind of developed this little crush over time.”

However, Witherspoon took a step back in the summer of 2007 while her divorce from Phillippe was still ongoing.

“They broke up. It’s totally and completely over,” a source in Witherspoon’s circle said back then. “Reese was the one who had to do it. She just got out of a divorce and was so concerned with her family, she just didn’t have the time for him and he really demanded that.”

Jake has plenty of work to keep him occupied now that his relationship is over.

The actor’s film “Brothers,” which he co-starred in with Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire, was just released in restricted cinemas, and his highly awaited “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” will be released next year.