"So even though sometimes it can be uncomfortable, I think it's nice to work through it and reconnect with the value that that person brought to your life," the actress said.
Gwyneth Paltrow is open with her fans about how she feels about her ex-boyfriends. In an Instagram Story question-and-answer session on Friday, the 50-year-old Goop founder got candid with her followers by discussing if she still gets along with some of her ex-partners. "Pretty much. I really believe in conscious uncoupling," she wrote, per Yahoo. "When you spend meaningful time with someone, it's nice to have it morph into friendship. I don't want to have bad blood with anyone, ever (if I can help it.)"
In another segment of the Q&A, Paltrow responded to a question from a fan on productivity advice. "I am a deeply optimistic person, and I think that impacts having a positive outlook on life," she said. The reason Paltrow is so full of positivity is that she tries "to have a really strong relationship with my body — myself, my relationships and a higher power," adding, "Those three things make everything fall into line, and I think it gives me a baseline of positivity."
Chris Martin, with whom Paltrow has children ages 18 and 16 called Apple Blythe and Moses, is one of her exes, per PEOPLE. The actress has been referring to their separation as a "conscious uncoupling" since before she and Martin announced it in March 2014. The actress claimed in a 2015 interview with Howard Stern that the phrase, which means to divorce with "minimal acrimony," was introduced to her by the philosopher Dr. Habib Sadeghi and his wife Dr. Shahrzad. In a 2019 episode of Armchair Expert, Paltrow shared that the phrase was a "way to circumvent [pain of divorce] 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."
"We're a family, that's it," she continued. "We can pretend we're not, and hate each other… or, [we can] try to reinvent this for ourselves." While the actress described it as a very "beautiful concept," she also opened up about the "brutal" backlash that received for the usage of the terminology. As she elaborated, 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."
Brad Falchuk, 51, the co-creator of Glee, and Paltrow were wed in 2018. She also disclosed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that her husband is okay with her connections, particularly the one she still has with her ex Brad Pitt, 58. "My husband is probably like the least judgmental, most secure man in our relationship, so I think he totally respects [the friendship]," she said, adding that "one of the things" her husband probably likes about her is her belief in "conscious uncoupling."
"Whether you're uncoupling with a coworker, a spouse, a boyfriend, I really do believe that if you've invested in somebody — and of course, there are exceptions — to amputate that relationship [shows that] maybe you're not then fully letting the full lesson reveal itself and the healing happen," she said. "So even though sometimes it can be uncomfortable, I think it's nice to work through it and reconnect with the value that that person brought to your life."
References:
https://people.com/movies/gwyneth-paltrow-says-pretty-much-friends-with-exes-i-dont-want-bad-blood/
https://www.etonline.com/gwyneth-paltrow-on-reviving-her-friendship-with-ex-brad-pitt-and-how-her-husband-feels-about-it/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Charley Gallay
