Gwyneth Paltrow Compares College Drop Off To Childbirth
The actor said the experience sending her daughter to school was “profound.”
Giving birth is a life-altering moment. You’ve brought new life into the world, and are now forever changed by the emotional, and painful, throes of labor and delivery. It’s truly what they call an out-of-body experience. And for Gwyneth Paltrow, only one thing comes close to that feeling: sending your child off to college.
In an interview with CBS This Morning, the Oscar winner opened up about raising her kids, Apple, 18, and Moses, 16, with her “consciously uncoupled” ex Chris Martin, and reaching the dreaded yet thrilling milestone of seeing their first-born child go away to school.
"I know this sounds nuts, but it feels almost as profound as giving birth," Paltrow, pausing at the question, told CBS’ Tracy Smith of the milestone.
In a recent Instagram post celebrating Apple’s 18th birthday, Paltrow wrote, “I say it all the time and I will never stop… in the words of auntie Drew [Barrymore], I was born the day you were born. I love you. ❤️ Mama.”
There’s no doubt going through the day-to-day motions without the young person whom you’ve raised and loved for all these years is difficult. Alas, a new stage of parenthood begins.
Believe it or not, Paltrow is turning 50. (She can’t believe it.) And as she reflects back on the first half of her life, the actor, mother and Goop founder is proud of all she’s accomplished and is looking forward to pushing even more boundaries in the future.
Paltrow, who celebrates her milestone birthday on Tuesday, told CBS that although people think Goop gets it wrong a lot, the company is actually just misunderstood. Goop has faced its fair share of backlash over everything from gluten-free dieting to vaginal jade eggs, but Paltrow insists everything they promote eventually hits the mainstream market — including that once laughed-at phrase conscious uncoupling or as she describes it “getting a nice divorce.”
“There’s nothing that we talk about that is actually that wacky,” she told CBS, adding that the brand is ahead of their time. “We would talk about something and the internet would freak out and then six months later or two years later it would be widely adopted.”
Paltrow said she and Martin really did figure out how to remain friends for the sake of their children, saying, “He’s completely my family and I love him. And he would do anything for me and I would do anything for him; we would do anything for our kids. We really did commit to wanting our children to be as unscathed by the divorce as possible.”
Paltrow, now married to TV producer Brad Falchuk, still has Moses to look after — and her husband has two children from his previous marriage — but surely the absence of Apple in everyday life will be something she grows used to.
For all that’s said about her, parents who just sent their kids off to school can definitely relate to Gwyneth’s experience.
