Gwyneth Paltrow: ‘My mind was f***** up by winning Oscar aged 26’

26 September 2022

Gwyneth Paltrow says her mind was “f***** up” by winning an Oscar aged 26.

Gwyneth Paltrow says her mind was ‘f***** up’ by winning an Oscar aged 26

The actress, named Best Actress for her role in 1998’s ‘Shakespeare in Love’, made the admission as she discussed her family and her upcoming 50th birthday.

She said during an interview on CBS Sunday Morning (25.09.22) about getting the award: “It’s crazy when I think about that now. At the time I thought I was, like, a full adult, you know?”

When correspondent Tracy Smith asked: “What do you think that did to your mind?” Gwyneth laughed: “F***** it up!”

The actress turned Goop founder went on: “You know, to reach that kind of, like, pinnacle at that age and have that much scrutiny and attention, and then it’s like, no matter what you do after that, you can’t really win, right?

“It’s like you have a few years of it’s, like, nothing’s gonna live up to that. It’s just a lot to hold.”

When asked when she decided to focus on wellness, which led to Gwyneth setting up her Goop firm, she said: “I’ll tell you exactly – when my father got cancer.

“And I was helping him one day feeding him with a syringe and feeding tube. And it struck me, like, ‘What is in this can that I’m injecting directly into his stomach?’

“And it was the first time I made a connection between food (and) wellness. I’ll never forget that moment.”

Gwyneth’s dad Bruce Paltrow died aged 58 in 2002 from complications of oral cancer and pneumonia.

She said about approaching her 50th birthday on September 27: “As a woman, you turn 50 and maybe we all give ourselves permission to be exactly who we are. And we stop trying to be what other people are expecting us to be, and you kind of exhale into this other thing.”

Mum-of-two Gwyneth, who shares daughter Apple, 18, and son Moses, 16, with her 45-year-old Coldplay frontman ex-husband Chris Martin – from whom she split in 2016 before marrying 51-year-old TV producer Brad Falchuk –  said in an essay posted on Goop last week about heading for the milestone age she was accepting her “loosening skin” and wrinkles.

She added in a long blog titled ‘On Turning 50’: “My body, a map of the evidence of all the days, is less timeless. A collection of marks and irregularities that dog-ear the chapters. Scarred from oven burns, a finger smashed in a window long ago, the birth of a child.

“Silver hair and fine lines. The sun has left her celestial fingerprints all over me, as if she soaked a brush in dark-taupe watercolour, flecking it over my skin.

“And while I do what I can to strive for good health and longevity, to stave off weakening muscles and receding bone, I have a mantra I insert into those reckless thoughts that try to derail me: I accept.

“I accept the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles. I accept my body and let go of the need to be perfect, look perfect, defy gravity, defy logic, defy humanity. I accept my humanity.”