Dad’s brutal cancer made me quit films for wellness, says Gwyneth
Elly Blake
GWYNETH Paltrow has spoken for the first time in depth about how she is quitting acting to run her business.
And the star revealed that it was her father’s “brutal” cancer treatment that prompted her interest in healthy living.
The mum-of-two, 47, announced she was retiring from acting to focus on her lifestyle and wellness brand, Goop, earlier this year.
Talking about her transition from acting to business, she said: “In this society we like our women in one digestible way that we understand, but if you try to be something else, we don’t like it.
“People couldn’t for a long time believe that I was running a company, until they heard me say, ‘I’m giving up acting. I’ll never be on screen again.’”
Gwyneth revealed she first became interested in nutrition after her father, Bruce Paltrow, was treated for throat cancer in
1999. She said: “His treatment was so brutal, I was thinking, almost out of desperation, that we had to be able to do something else to help him.
“That’s when I started to research food and nutrition.”
Bruce, a Hollywood director and producer, was diagnosed with throat cancer just a few months before he was due to direct
Gwyneth in the film Duets.
After radical surgery and radiotherapy, he returned to the movie set after only 13 days.
By the time the film was released in 2000, Bruce was declared in remission.
But he died unexpectedly aged 58 in 2002, while in Rome with his daughter celebrating her birthday.
Gwyneth launched Goop in 2008, originally as a newsletter.
The brand has since grown to comprise a Netflix series, podcast, franchise of wellness summits, books, retail and pop-up stores and wellness products.
The Shakespeare In Love actress, who divorced Coldplay’s Chris Martin, said wellness is about “listening to yourself, tuning to what interests you, and trying things”.
She added: “Find what makes you feel better and go from there.”
Suited to the job... Gwyneth in photos to accompany her interview and, above, with her father Bruce and mother Blythe