What’s the secret to a healthy marriage and happy family?
Being there when your husband gets home at night and having dinner on the table. At least, that’s what works for actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
The 39-year-old actress shared her recipe for success in a revealing interview (+ photo shoot) for US Harper’s Bazaar’s March issue. While she admitted here views weren’t the most feminist thing to say,’ she makes no apologies and says she “can do only what works for me and my family”.
There’s a lot to admire about Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s one of Hollywood’s successful actresses, she’s just about to release her second cook book, she has a fishmonger on speed dial and in her “spare time” she runs the highly successful blog, Goop.
Does she have it all? Whatever that is? Let’s also remember she’s also the woman who calls her grandmother a c**t on live TV.
Here’s a snippet of what she said – while falling “naturally into yoga poses” – in the conversation with Harper’s.
But first, here’s that fashion shoot – with the images visibly photoshopped (you can see some of the behind the scenes pics below) plus we’ve given you some of our favourite pictures of Gwyn)
ON HER MARRIAGE TO CHRIS MARTIN
“He’s very communicative,” she said, “which is rare for a British man.” The couple have been together 9 years and have two children – Apple, 7, and Moses, 5. They’re one of the more private celebrity couples, and over the years there’s been a lot of speculation about the health of their marriage.
“My parents were married for 30-something years, and he said [it was] because they never wanted to get divorced at the same time.” “I think you do fall in and out of love and you just keep going, and every time you go through a really difficult phase, you rediscover something new and it just gets better. We’ve been married for more than eight years now, and we’re still into it.”
ON FAMILY LIFE
“If I’m in L.A. for three days working, then my husband does the school run; it’s always one of us,” she said. “I have little kids in school. I want to maintain my marriage and my family, so I have to be here when he comes home.” Gwyneth cooks dinner for the family every night, before she gives the children their bath where “we all get in the tub together”.
Of some recent advice she gave to a girlfriend, she said: “She is an actress and in a new relationship with someone else with a big career, and I said this may not be feminist, but you have to compromise. It’s been all about you and you’re a big deal. And if you want what you’re saying you want—a family—you have to be a wife, and that is part of the equation. Gloria Steinem may string me up by my toes, but all I can do is my best, and I can do only what works for me and my family.”
ON DETOX + HEALTHY LIVING
At the time of the interview, Gwyneth’s on a 12-week detox program. “I have a lot of inflammation in my system, so I’m not having anything I’m allergic to—no gluten, no dairy, no sugar,” she says. “I’ll wake up exhausted; I can feel my adrenal cortex being really high. When I get into bed, my heart will pound, my skin won’t be good, I’ll feel cranky, and then I’ll just know it’s time.”
But when she’s not detoxing, it’s wine and cheese that’s on the menu (although you do wonder how much?) “I eat whatever I want. I like bread and cheese and wine, and that makes my life fun and enjoyable.”
ON HER FATHER
“I would do anything to have him back, but half the reason that my life is good, has real, true value, is that he died. I would obviously rather have him alive, but he gave me so much in his death. I don’t go back and say I wish he had done this differently, I wish he hadn’t smoked, because the fact is that he did and he died. As much grief and pain and trauma and heartache are caused, there was an equal amount of positivity that came out of his death.”
If you don’t subscribe to Gwyneth’s Paltrow’s Goop newsletters, you should. I like to think she writes it all herself and takes the photos or at least some of them. She published this a few days ago – behind the scenes at the Harper’s Bazaar. Just your average Saturday fashion shoot, really.
