Gwyneth Paltrow Admitted Her ‘Conscious Uncoupling’ From Chris Martin Was ‘Brutal’
In 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin announced that they were consciously uncoupling. The pair had been married for over 10 years at that point, and wanted a way to move on from their relationship that left them able to remain friends. While Paltrow believes they succeeded in this goal, she admitted the period in time was not easy. This was because of the public reaction to their separation announcement.
Gwyneth Paltrow said the way people reacted to her separation from Chris Martin hurt
In 2014, Paltrow and Martin announced their decision to consciously uncouple. Paltrow believed this was a good way to ease the pain of divorce for herself, Martin, and their two children.
“The most common wound that I heard from children of divorce was, ‘My parents couldn’t be in the same room and couldn’t be friends. It took three years, it took 18 years, it took — God forbid — the death of a close family member for them to sit at the same table,’” Paltrow said on Armchair Expert, per People. “I just thought, ‘I wonder if there’s a way to circumvent that and go directly to the point where we’re friends and we remember what we loved about each other, and constantly acknowledge that we created these incredible human beings together.’”
Still, Paltrow said the separation was not easy on her.
“I think at the time, I was in a lot of pain,” she said. “It felt like such a failure to me. It was so hard and I was so worried about my kids.”
The public reaction they received for consciously uncoupling made things even worse. Paltrow felt a “layer of the world turning on us about saying, essentially, we just want to be nice to each other and stay a family.”
“It was brutal,” she said. “I already felt like I had no skin on.”
She shared when she knew her marriage was over
Several years before this, Paltrow said she realized her marriage would not last. She was on a 38th birthday trip with Martin. Everything was outwardly perfect, but she felt a sense of wrongness.
“I don’t recall when it happened, exactly,” she wrote in an essay for Vogue UK. “I don’t remember which day of the weekend it was or the time of day. But I knew – despite long walks and longer lie-ins, big glasses of Barolo and hands held – my marriage was over.”
She tried to push the feeling away, but it only grew stronger.
“At first, I was moderately successful at turning the volume down on that knowledge,” she wrote. “It would be years until we said the words aloud. But, that weekend, a dam had cracked just enough to hear the unrelenting trickle of truth. And it grew louder until it was all I could hear.”
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have remained friends after their divorce
In the decade after their divorce, Lopez and Martin have remained close. They frequently spend time with their children together as a family and Paltrow has posted loving Instagram tributes to Martin on his birthday. Paltrow and her current husband, Brad Falchuk, also often spent time with Martin and his girlfriend, Dakota Johnson.
