Gwyneth Paltrow Regrets Announcing Her “Conscious Uncoupling” with Chris Martin

Image by Getty

By Lilly Maier September 7, 2016

In 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow broke the internet by infamously announcing her “conscious uncoupling” with Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin on her lifestyle website, Goop. Now,the Oscar-winning actress and businesswoman says she regrets the way she announced it.

In an interview on LinkedIn, Paltrow said she was actually aiming for a low-key way to break the news. “At that time, Goop wasn’t the size that it is now, there were a lot less people,” Paltrow said. “It was such a difficult time in my life and I was trying so hard to protect my children and my family, Chris included. We were both fragile. It was really tough. To me, it felt like this is a quiet way to do this and it is contained.”

Image by getty image

Asked if she would do it again, Paltrow responded: “That is a good question. Not in the same way. It sort of wouldn’t be appropriate now. It is a much bigger business and I’m not sure it would be the right place to do something like that. I’m not sure. That’s a good question.”

Goop is a lifestyle publication and shopping portal. It has more than one million subscribers. Two years ago, it was still quite small (the unexpected interested in Paltrow’s separation announcement actually crashed the website).

Even though she didn’t expect the hype around the phrase, Paltrow continued to promote the concept of “conscious uncoupling.” In a Goop post of the same name, two doctors write that “if we can recognize that our partners in our intimate relationships are our teachers, helping us evolve our internal, spiritual support structure, we can avoid the drama of divorce and experience what we call a conscious uncoupling.”

Paltrow and Martin were together for ten years. They have two children together, Apple, 12, and Moses, 10. After her split, Paltrow started dating Jewish producer Brad Falchuk.

Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @lillymmaier.

Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. She is a graduate journalism student at New York University, where she studies as a Fulbright scholar. She also holds a B.A. in Jewish history from the University of Munich. Contact Lilly at [email protected], read her portfolio, or follow her on Twitter.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO