Gwyneth blamed
Chris and Dakota’s sad split
Once envied for having one of the most “real” relationships in Hollywood, Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson cut lonely figures last week.
Hot on the heels of calling it quits on their two two-year year romance, Dakota, 29, looked glum as she turned up for work on the set of her new movie Covers in a pair of blue overalls. Chris, meanwhile, tried to pedal his blues away by taking a bike ride around Malibu with a friend.
According to our source, the split came as “a real surprise” to those in the duo’s wider circle. After getting matching infinity tattoos last year, everyone expected them to be announcing a wedding, not a break-up, but some say it all boiled down to babies.
“Chris made it clear he wanted more kids as soon as possible,” claims one insider. “But Dakota is young and her career has just taken off. It got to the point where a light seemed to flick on in both their heads and they realised they were pulling in completely opposite directions, so they decided to call it a day.”
Now Coldplay frontman Chris, 42 – who earlier this year purchased an $8.5 million Malibu beach house with hopes of starting a family with the
FiftyShades actress – is back to square one. And a well-placed source tells Woman’sDay the musician’s relationship with his ex Gwyneth Paltrow is the real reason things went wrong with Dakota.
While Avengers:Endgame star Gwyneth, 46, made a show of welcoming Dakota into the fold – even posting a photo of herself with her arm draped over Dakota’s shoulders in April – our insider claims that the A-lister’s “passiveaggression” towards Dakota was, in the end, too much for the younger actress to bear.
“Dakota always saw Gwyneth’s attempts at friendship as thinly veiled
and inauthentic,” says the source. “Gwyneth was ever-present in their relationship and she always felt as if she was secretly trying to outdo her.
“When Gwyneth posted that snap of them together, Dakota’s friends joked that it was her way of ‘keeping her friends close and her enemies closer’. Dakota laughed, but deep down it sparked some very unsettling feelings.”
Gwyneth and Chris, who split in 2014 after 10 years of marriage, share custody of their kids Apple, 15 and Moses, 13. Dakota was close to Apple in particular – the pair were snapped on an early morning coffee run together in Malibu in May – and the insider claims Dakota had the feeling Oscar-winner Gwyneth was jealous of her good relationship with the kids.
“Sometimes, when they were all together with the kids, Gwyneth would make comments that would lead Dakota to feel belittled and would basically alienate her from the conversation as they reminisced about the past.”
To make matters worse, when Dakota tried to discuss how she felt with Chris, apparently he jumped to Gwyneth’s defence, leaving her feeling like she was second best.
“Dakota really respects how hard Chris and Gwyneth have worked to build a united family unit post-split, but it became clear she was fighting a losing battle and she’s told friends she had no choice but to end things,” says the insider.
“Chris was gutted and begged her to change her mind. mind He told her he felt constantly torn between her and Gwyneth, but Dakota told him it was too little, too late, and she was sick of feeling like she was in a constant tug-of-war. Chris’ loyalties always seemed to lie with his ex-wife.”
The split came as a blow not just to Chris but also to Dakota’s parents, Tinseltown veterans Melanie Griffith, 61, and Don Johnson, 69, who both said last year how much they adored the “Yellow” hitmaker.
“They were hoping for a wedding and the pitterpatter of little feet,” says the insider. “And the claims that Dakota wasn’t ready to have children couldn’t be further from the truth. She was hoping to settle down and start a family with Chris in the next year.
“Dakota’s heartbroken that it’s come to this. She really didn’t want to have to end things, but she couldn’t stand the thought of living the rest of her life feeling like the other woman. She felt she was given no choice but to walk away.”