GWYNETH ON
She’s an Oscar winner and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars but it isn’t acting that Gwyneth Paltrow is best known for. Instead, it’s her “conscious uncoupling” from musician husband Chris Martin, a phrase which Gwyneth now acknowledges was “painfully progressive and hard to swallow”.
But the amicable split did give the actress the chance to move on and find love again, to her astonishment.
She met her second husband, Brad Falchuk, 48, when she appeared on the TV series Glee, which he co-created and produced. Gwyneth, 47, says of her new relationship: “It was great to fall in love again at a mature age. It was a wonderful surprise and I didn’t necessarily think that it would happen for me and I got very, very, very lucky – very lucky.
“So I’m very, very grateful and I think when it happens to you when you’re a bit older in life you place a value and an importance on it that you don’t do when you’re in your 20s because you don’t know the difference at that age.”
The star shares children Apple, 16, and Moses, 14, with Coldplay frontman Chris, 43, who she split from in 2016 after 13 years of marriage. She wed TV producer Brad in 2018.
She says: “For a while, I thought, I don’t know if I’d ever do it again. I have my kids, so what’s the point? And then I met this incredible man who made me think he is worth making this commitment to.
“I’m very much the marrying kind. I love being a wife. I love making a home.”
Gwyneth and Chris remain close. Chris and his girlfriend, actress Dakota Johnson, 30, even joined Gwyneth and Brad in what she called a “big family honeymoon” in the Maldives.
But for a while after their wedding, Gwyneth and Brad – who also has two children, Isabella and Brody – lived in separate homes, only getting together a few times a week.
She explains: “We took a year to let everybody in the family take it in and let the dust settle. We are all settled in now and we are very happy all together under one roof.
“It’s been amazing. I don’t think I would define myself as a trendsetter but I suppose if I look back at everything I’ve said and done I guess I am in a certain way.”
Gwyneth says she was worried about how the teenagers would deal with being confined at home during the coronavirus lockdown.
She says: “For teenagers to be told ‘OK, no going out, no parties, no skateboarding and skate parks or anything like that,’ it’s quite a change for them. I was thinking, ‘oh my goodness what do we do and how am I going to manage this and keep them engaged?’
“But my kids were so wonderful. They were very responsible with their schoolwork, and what I love the most are these long, lingering dinner conversations we have every night. They really embraced the circumstances and now they’re ready to go out into the world.
“It’s been a good lesson for all of us because when you’re stuck in the house with people, even if you love them, or even if you’re by yourself, the inner voices get louder, so it’s a good opportunity to tune in to the inner voice and see what needs to be taken care of.” Gwyneth, who is the founder and CEO of lifestyle company Goop, is talking from her home in Los Angeles. Happy with her husband and family, and three years away from 50, the woman who has featured on countless magazine covers is not worried about the wrinkles and crow’s feet that she says are finally appearing around her eyes.
And she has her own theory on the ageing process: “It’s interesting, because as soon as you start to really like yourself and really accept yourself, that’s when you start having wrinkles and your metabolism changes and all of these things happen. It’s like, you’ve just got to