Gwyneth Paltrow talks 'grief and sadness' as an empty nester: 'It's evolving'

Gwyneth Paltrow got candid about life as an empty nester after both of her kids left for college.

The Oscar-winning actress, who shares two kids, her daughter Apple, 20, and son Moses, 18, with her ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, opened up in a Q&A session on Instagram with her followers on Tuesday.

During the interaction, one fan asked Paltrow, "How's life as a free bird?"

In response, she said in a video, "Thank you for asking… It's very different."

"I have waves of kind of grief and sadness," she continued. "I am kind of getting back in touch with this part of myself that I haven't felt like since I was in my 20s before I had kids. A little more space and imagination, maybe. A little more inner space for what I might want to do that day, stuff like that."

"So, it's evolving. It's interesting," she added.

Earlier this year, Paltrow shared that her son, Moses, was headed to Brown University this fall in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter."

She also touched on being an empty nester at the time, saying "It's kind of giving me a nervous breakdown, if I'm honest."

"I started being like, 'Oh my God, and I need to quit my job and I need to sell my house and I need to move.' It's sort of putting things into turmoil," she explained. "My identity has been being a mother. Apple's going to be 20 in May. So I've oriented my whole life around them and their schedules and when school starts. You start to let go in increments when they're driving themselves around or doing certain things. It is a slower process."

Paltrow also expressed her gratitude for the close bond she shares with her close-knit group of mom friends.

"I feel really lucky because I have a close group of mom friends and we all raised our kids alongside one another," she added. "So we're kind of in it together."

After tying the knot with her current husband Brad Falchuk in 2018, Paltrow also became a stepmom to Falchuk's kids, Isabella and Brody, whom he shares with his ex, Suzanne Bukinik.