Gwyneth Paltrow has spoken about the difficulties she faced following the end of her engagement to Brad Pitt in the 1990s.
Paltrow, 53, described her romance with Pitt, who is 62, as "overwhelming" during a recent appearance on the Friends Keep Secrets podcast. The couple met on the set of the 1995 film Se7en and experienced what she called "love at first sight."
"I was just young, and we were working all over different parts of the world," Paltrow recalled of their relationship. The pair became engaged in 1996 and their breakup occurred in 1997.
Paltrow shared that while their relationship had an "aspect of it that was very heady," the intense public attention added another layer of difficulty.
"I think the press aspect and all that makes it feel larger than life in a way," she explained. "You have to carry this faux cultural importance piece, this extra burden and this extra shame that it didn't work out."
Paltrow noted that she remains on good terms with Pitt, stating, "he's great and she loves him," and expressed that she was "so bummed" when they parted ways.
Paltrow's unauthorized biographer, Amy Odell, claimed in her book Gwyneth: The Biography that the actress was saddened when Pitt married Jennifer Aniston in 2000.
Paltrow later had a three-year relationship with Ben Affleck. In a 2023 interview, when asked to compare Pitt and Affleck, Paltrow described Pitt as "the major chemistry love of [my] life at the time" and Affleck as "technically excellent" in terms of their physical intimacy. Regarding their acting talents, she acknowledged both as talented but leaned towards Pitt for his diverse roles.
Paltrow married Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2003. They share two children, daughter Apple, 22, and son Moses, 20, before their divorce in 2016.
She has been married to producer and screenwriter Brad Falchuk since 2018.