GWYNNIE’S TWINNIE
by Alison Boshoff
LIFE post-Gwynnie is clearly treating him well. Whereas once Chris Martin was skinny, pallid and a bit insipid, today he cuts an altogether hunkier figure.
With muscles worthy of a Hollywood A-lister and gleaming with health, the restrictive macrobiotic diet so beloved by his former wife Gwyneth Paltrow is out; meat, eggs and cheesy Wotsits are back in.
The Coldplay singer has even been seen smiling in public. He seems to have been rejuvenated by romances with a bevy of beauties — the latest of whom, 32-year-old British actress Annabelle Wallis, bears a striking resemblance to his former missus.
After a period of depression following the ‘conscious uncoupling’ with Paltrow in 2014, he said last year that his divorce had made him re- examine his life. But he remains close to his ex, with whom he has two children — Apple, 13, and Moses, 11.
Tellingly, he also turned 40 in March, an unsettling birthday for any man.
Despite all the changes, his taste for famous stunners has remained. He dated model and socialite Alexa Chung, actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Hudson and singer Kylie Minogue, before getting together with Annabelle in 2015.
Tall, willowy, blue- eyed, with pokerstraight blonde hair, there have been inevitable comparisons between her and Gwyneth, 44. But whereas drippy Gwynnie is known for her faddy diet and beauty advice (collagen martini, anyone?), Annabelle is more of a bouncily posh tomboy.
She was born in Oxford but raised on her family’s farm in Portugal. The late actor Richard Harris was her uncle.
‘Feral’ and ‘sporty’ as a child, she speaks four languages and has a joie de vivre quite unlike earnest Gwynnie.
Currently on a global tour to publicise the blockbuster film The Mummy, Annabelle appears determined to prove she is one of a kind.
‘I like the idea that I come into a room and you think you’re dealing with one thing, but the truth is I’m very layered,’ she told Town & Country magazine.
‘I’m this blonde, blue-eyed woman who you can be fooled into thinking is quite safe, but is actually rather dangerous. I get a kick out of turning the tables on people.’
Yet despite her desire to be unique, Annabelle and Gwyneth cut spookily similar poses.
As the former’s Instagram feed (101,000 followers) and that of Gwyneth (3.4 million followers) show, they have been echoing each other in an uncanny (and, one hopes, inadvertent) fashion for some time . . .