Gwyneth Paltrow’s Wealthy Dad Once Refused to Give Her Money for Gas

Gwyneth Paltrow is an award-winning actor. Though Gwyneth has made a name for herself in Hollywood, she actually came from a showbiz family.

Her parents had quite a lot of money growing up, but Gwyneth recently shared the story of how her late father once refused to give her gas money. 

Who was Gwyneth Paltrow’s dad?

Gwyneth’s father is Bruce Paltrow, a director and producer. Gwyneth was born to Bruce and his wife, actor Blythe Danner. Gwyneth has a younger brother named Jake, who has also worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter and director.

Bruce died in 2002 at the age of 58. According to Variety, he had been battling throat cancer since 1999 and died of pneumonia.

Why Bruce Paltrow once refused to give his daughter gas money

Although her father has been gone for almost 20 years now, Gwyneth still has many memories of him that she reminisces on. She recently spoke to Anna Faris on the podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified about how Bruce felt about Gwyneth being given a piece of his fortune.

“He said, ‘You can enjoy this while you’re here, and I love you, and I’m gonna share this with you while you live with me, but when you’re done, you’re done.’ Like, ‘I’m not giving you a penny, I will never help you,’ and he stuck to it,” Gwyneth recalled, according to Yahoo.

She shared that she and her brother both had to work while they were students.

“We had jobs after school,” Gwyneth said. “My brother worked at the deli on the corner. I worked at a toy store. I worked at a ski store. I worked summer jobs. I worked. [My dad was] like, ‘If you want money, you have to work for the money.’… It was a very valuable parenting lesson.”

Even when Gwyneth really needed money, Bruce stuck by his rule of not giving her financial help. She shared, “I mean, there were times when I was like, ‘But I have no gas money to get to this audition.’ And he was like, ‘That’s not my problem. I love you, but that’s not my problem.’”

Bruce Paltrow inspired Gwyneth Paltrow to get into the wellness industry

In addition to acting, Gwyneth is known for being a business owner. She founded a wellness company called Goop, which offers lifestyle advice and sells health products. Goop has attracted a lot of attention from consumers in the United States and even inspired a show on Netflix called The Goop Lab.

According to Paltrow, her father’s cancer treatment was what inspired her to learn more about wellness.

“His treatment was so brutal, I was thinking, almost out of desperation, that we had to be able to do something else to help him,” she told Town & Country. “That’s when I started to research food and nutrition.”