Back in 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband at the time, Chris Martin, announced they were getting a divorce. It was big news back then, mainly because they didn’t describe it as a divorce. They defined it as a “conscious uncoupling,” which had everyone scratching their heads.
Now, years later, Paltrow is opening up about the divorce, and more specifically, on how it impacted their kids, Apple and Moses, who were 11 and 9 at the time.
[Chris Martin] and I both really did not want to have them experience the divorce as a trauma. We knew it would be hard, of course, but we didn’t want them to ever feel in the middle, or that one of us was slagging off the other one. At that time, I did a very me thing, which was when I knew I wanted to get a divorce, I did this data collection of talking to adults who had been products of a broken home. Every single one of them said, ‘I didn’t care that my parents got divorced. That wasn’t it. But the fact that they wouldn’t speak to each other, that they couldn’t both sit at a dinner table for my birthday…’ They said that was the most awful thing.
Which makes sense, right? Sure, dividing your home can be hard and having to spend weekends with one parent and the school week with another can be strange.
But most of all, kids wants to feel loved and they want to feel safe. They also want peace in the family, and we’re sure it means the world to them to see their parents still getting along with each other.
So both Martin and Paltrow made it a point to remain friends. They didn’t allow themselves to carry over any anger from their failed marriage, and it ended up working out for them both.
These days, Apple and Moses are teens, and Paltrow says they are doing great. “My kids are great. They’re grounded and grateful and funny,” she revealed in the interview.
Kudos to Paltrow and Martin for doing co-parenting right!
