Gwyneth Paltrow found being a stepmother ‘really hard’: ‘There’s a lot of landmines’
For Gwyneth Paltrow, being a stepmother is no easy feat.
The Goop founder, 50, opened up about what it’s like being part of a blended family after becoming a stepmother to husband Brad Falchuk’s two children, Isabella, 19, and Brody, 17.
Taking to her Instagram Story Thursday, the Academy Award winner took part in a fan Q&A session where she invited her 8 million followers to ask her anything.
One fan asked Paltrow what it’s like to marry a partner who was already a parent from a previous relationship.
“I did find it really hard at first,” the health guru said. “You know? There’s no book on this. Nobody tells us what to do. And in fact, all of the existing media around what a stepmother is casts us in this evil, villainous light.”
“It’s kind of like trying to avoid landmines,” she added.
Paltrow and Falchuk wed in September 2018, two years after her and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s divorce was finalized.
The exes, who remain on great terms and even vacation together with their respective partners, share daughter Apple, 19, and 17-year-old son Moses together.
For his part, Falchuk shares his two children with his previous wife of 19 years, Suzanne Bukinik.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Paltrow, who acknowledged the difficulties of becoming a stepmother to two teens.
“You’re going into a family with dynamics, and there’s all kinds of fear around loss and what does this new person mean,” she shared.
“But you know for myself, the minute I decided and fully embodied the idea that my step-kids were my kids and I loved them just as much, and I gave them the same rules and boundaries and just kind of wholeheartedly went for it, the easier the whole thing got.”
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After tying the knot with the “Glee” co-creator, the pair waited nearly a year to move their blended family into one home after the nuptials.
Paltrow previously explained their hesitation to immediately “merge” during an October 2019 “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” interview, saying, “We each have two teenage children whom we love very much.”
“We were just trying to be mindful and give them a little space and not move too quickly,” she added.
