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As part of a SXSW panel about social media interest in celebrities, Kerry Washington broke down in detail her reasons for keeping her private life off of social media – including her decision not to use it for rumor-busting purposes regarding her marriage to Nnamdi Asomugha, or even to share pics of her baby.

“I think it’s a double-edged sword,” the “Scandal” star said during Sunday’s “The New Rules of Social Stardom” panel.

“I think — and this is something Reese Witherspoon has talked about a lot — it’s a little different for me because I don’t talk about my personal life,” Washington continued. “Social media has actually been great for [other celebrities’] relationships with the weeklies or the gossip sites because people say things and they say, ‘That’s not true! Just so you know, that’s BS!’ I say ‘BS’ because it’s Sunday. So I’m thinking in some ways, it’s been great because people are able to maintain their voice.”

Washington says the ability for celebs to use Twitter or Instagram to squash rumors is fine, but she uses the platforms mainly to promote her ABC drama.

“If I don’t talk about my personal life, it means I don’t talk about my personal life,” she explained. “That means not only did I not tell you when I was getting married, it also means if somebody has rumors about what’s going on in my marriage, I don’t refute them, because I don’t talk about my personal life.”

That includes social posts about the couple’s 22-month-old daughter, Isabelle.

“It’s like I have these itchy fingers where I want to just show my daughter because she’s so cute and instead I like, send it to my shrink or send it to my mother,” Washington said. “I’m like, ‘Look at this picture! Look how cute, look at this picture!’ Get it out of my phone into the world, but not on social. So I get the desire to do that, but I want her to make her own decisions in her time and I feel like she already has a lot to navigate in life being the daughter of an actor and a former football player that she has a lot going on, so she should be able to enter this world when it feels right for her and not make that decision for her. Who knows that the next generation of Snapchat will be when she’s allowed to have a phone, you know? Who knows?”

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(Photo Source: AP)