Tracy Anderson felt "minimised and denounced" when she was described as a "celebrity trainer".
Tracy Anderson with her famous client Gwyneth Paltrow
The 49-year-old fitness expert has counted the likes of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez and Victoria Beckham as her clients over the years, but she felt frustrated by her tag as "fitness guru to the stars" as she had so much more to offer.
She told Sunday Times Style magazine: “The press labelled me as something that isn’t the main part of who I am. ‘Celebrity trainer, fitness guru to the stars.’
"In reality I have a dance background, a chess background, a piano background, an inventor background, an explorer background and my parents were both artists.
"I grew up in this artistic, progressive family with parents who were like, ‘Go break boundaries!’
"But it was easier for the world to say, ‘That girl’s cute and hangs out with celebrities and can move. Let’s call her a celebrity trainer.’ I feel like I was minimised and denounced in so many ways.”
But Tracy still heaped praise on Gwyneth, 51, and Jennifer, 54, for continuing to push themselves with their fitness in their fifties.
She said: “All three of us have a really close relationship with our bodies physically, we all three listen to our bodies.
"Gwyneth is a CEO, she has to be motivated. She will walk into a session and I know she doesn’t feel like doing it and she will do it and feel better afterwards. It’s like a non-negotiable for her. We’re smart enough to know we need to be doing it.”
At different points, Tracy has lived with both Madonna and Gwyneth.
She explained: "Because they wanted me to be able to train them and my philosophy was that we needed to move our bodies in this way pretty much five to seven days a week to be effective, so that meant that I needed to be where they were."
But the entrepreneur parted ways with Madonna in 2009 and later admitted their relationship "wasn't working" because she had to miss key moments in her son's life due to the "demands" of the 'Vogue' hitmaker.
However, she's always found the Goop founder more understanding.
She said: “Gwyneth was so generous about my son and my son’s father and being very family-oriented. Because of that we’ve forged a lifelong sisterhood. Gwyneth and I still train today.”
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