The second issue of goop magazine features Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover with Brad Falchuk, officially confirming their engagement. The issue is themed for “sex and love” so it makes sense that G’s love life – and sex life – is showcased. And it makes even more sense that she’s confirming the news (which had previously been reported but not officially commented on) with her own publication. Always redirect back to the brand. Clearly Brad F is on board too. We’ll come back to that in a minute. Because you probably want a look at the ring. Here’s the ring, presumably:
Brad F doesn’t get to show his full face in either one of those shots. He’s the Jessica Biel in this relationship. And, in this case, I’m kind of here for it. Especially in comparison to the man she used to be married to. You know, Chris Martin, who never wanted to be seen with her and would rather take off running down the street rather than be photographed with her. There’s a lot of sh-t we can talk about Gwyneth, and we do, but we can also talk some sh-t about Chris and the issues he had with her fame. He’s the lead singer of a band. That’s not a small ego.
Here’s what G has to say about getting married again and her relationship with Brad F:
"Personally, at midlife, I have tried to accept how complex romantic love can be. I have decided to give it a go again, not only because I believe I have found the man I was meant to be with, but because I have accepted the soul-stretching, pattern-breaking opportunities that (terrifyingly) are made possible by intimacy," she writes about Falchuk. "For the first time, I feel like I'm in an adult relationship that is sometimes very uncomfortable—because he sort of demands a certain level of intimacy and communication that I haven't been held to before. What came up in the first couple of years of our relationship was how incapable I was in this realm—how I feared intimacy and communication." (Source)
So, basically, this is a man who wants to feel things with her. And she was reluctant to be so feeling about her feelings because it was new, to go to that level of intimacy. Well.
WELL.
I mean there are all kinds of interpretations you can read into in those statements. She and Chris were together for about a year when she got pregnant. They got married shortly after that. And then Moses was born two years after Apple. Chris was still in his 20s. That’s a lot of growing and maturing in that time, while raising children. Never mind the fact that the marriage involved a movie star and the lead singer of a band.
Brad F is a producer, and a very successful one. To me this is an vital detail because in his professional life, his role is behind the scenes. He came to her with that muscle of being cool with showing just the side of his face on the cover of a magazine fully formed. And he also came with his own career, again a very successful career. Here’s a man in his 40s, also divorced, a father of two, who orbits the same world, but doesn’t compete in G’s spotlight.
This is another reason why she’s so f-cking smug. Because you know what it normally looks like when a woman in her 40s gets divorced. It’s usually the man who hooks up first, permanently. But here’s Gwyneth Paltrow, not single for all that long (if she was ever single at all, ahem), and she’s remarrying a guy who checks all the boxes: successful in his own right, mature, responsible, isn’t trying to famewhore off her, is content to be in the shadows, and willing to do sh-t like this…
… which is probably everything that Chris Martin wasn’t.
