Gwyneth Paltrow weighs in on nepo baby debate: 'It's kind of an ugly moniker'
Gwyneth Paltrow is weighing in on the nepo baby debate.
The Academy Award-winning actress, 51, opened up about the topic during a wide-ranging interview with Bustle, saying it's a "judgment that exists around kids of famous people" and calling it "an ugly moniker."
"But there's nothing wrong with doing or wanting to do what your parents do," she said. "Nobody rips on a kid who's like 'I want to be a doctor like my dad and granddad.'"
The Goop founder, who is the daughter of actors Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner, continued, "The truth is if you grow up in a house with a lot of artists and people making art and music, that's what you know, the same way that if you grow up in a house with law, the discussions around the table are about the nuances of whatever particular law the parents practice."
Paltrow said she hopes that her kids -- 19-year-old daughter Apple and 17-year-old son Moses -- "always feel free to pursue exactly what they want to do, irrespective of what anybody's going to think or say."
Keep reading for more topics Paltrow touched on during the Bustle interview.
Shielding her kids from the "trauma" of divorce
Paltrow said that prior to her divorce from Chris Martin -- her kids' dad -- she was "burdened" by the idea that getting one would be a "failure," adding that the idea "weighed very, very heavily" on her.
The "Sliding Doors" actress said she and the Coldplay frontman didn't want their kids to "experience the divorce as a trauma."
"We knew that 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," she said, explaining that she'd spoken to adults whose parents had gotten divorced and the takeaway was that they didn't care about the divorce, they cared about their parents getting along.
"They said that was the most awful thing," she said, referring to those adults. "You could see they held it with so much hurt and anger. I was like, 'That's what I'm never going to do.' And we really didn't."
Not comparing herself to other women
Paltrow said she "never" compares herself to other women -- no matter the age.
"I made a pact with myself to never measure myself against any other woman," she explained. "So it's like: How do I feel? How am I holding myself? Do I like myself? What is my anxiety level? Am I strong?"
Paltrow continued, "Yeah, I'm bummed that my stomach is... I had two babies and now, for some reason, at 51, it's like all the elasticity's going. But if I look at a 28-year-old model on Instagram and think my stomach's supposed to look like that, I'll just go into a depression. So I've really tried to divorce myself from that comparison."
Updates on her family
Paltrow said it's "fun" to have a daughter in their late teens, gushing that Apple is "into clothes and skin and all that kind of stuff."
"She's more girly than I am. She's really good at doing makeup and loves to do it," she added. "She's such an eminently nice person, and her values are in the right place."
With Moses, a high school senior, Paltrow said "the college process is a full-time job in and of itself."
"Apple was very clear on where she wanted to go, and did everything in her power to make it happen and manifested it," she said. "Moses is like, 'I don't know, I like this and I like that, and let's go back and see this, let's go back and see that one.' He's more relaxed about it. He's kind of like 'I'll be happy wherever; it's fine,' which is a great feeling."
Of her husband Brad Falchuk, Paltrow called him "so patient" as well as "nonjudgmental and open-minded."
"I feel really lucky," she said. "He's a great guy, and he's my best friend."
