Gwyneth Paltrow Reflects on Parenting Missteps and Guilt

Gwyneth Paltrow feels “guilty for any misstep” as a parent.

The actress-turned-Goop founder, 51, has daughter Apple, 19, and son Moses, 18, with her 47-year-old Coldplay frontman ex-husband Chris Martin and made the admission as she opened up about how she was flooded with questions about how she coped with motherhood at a recent “health summit” she ran for her wellness site.

She said in a Goop newsletter to fans released on Thursday (May 2): “At our ‘In goop Health’ summit a couple of weeks ago, I got more questions about motherhood than usual during my ‘Ask Me Anything’ session.

“Our collective consciousness seems to have become hyper-focused on everything we’re doing wrong as parents ... we feel guilty for any misstep, any missed moment.

“We also seem to be driven by a desire to cocoon our children away from all pain, to protect them from any friction that we felt growing up.”

Gwyneth, whose mom is Hollywood acting veteran Blythe Danner, 81, said she mulled over why mothers are filled with guilt and pain when she had her as a guest on her Goop podcast.

Revealing she now thinks parents should be more “forgiving” of themselves, the actress added: “In a podcast conversation from long ago, I talked about this with my own mom.

“She had been running through the mistakes she felt she’d made as a mother, and I just thought, ‘What if all those 'mistakes' are the reason I am who I am?’ We’re here to learn lessons, and sometimes we lose sight of the fact that challenges are part of how we all grow.

“As parents, I hope we can become more forgiving of ourselves – and bring a softness to knowing that we’re supposed to make some mistakes along the way. It’s part of what it means to be a human being. “

Gwyneth, who has been married to her second husband, TV producer Brad Falchuk, 53, since 2018, signed off her message with “love."

She also pointed fans to her Mother’s Day gift guide, which contains three high-priced vibrators among its recommendations.