Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin weren’t kidding when they said in a statement about their separation that they’ve always conducted their relationship privately. In the last year, the couple have made just a handful of formal joint appearances — and at one event last May, they were never even photographed together.
Their most recent appearance as a pair was a couple of months ago, when they both attended the Hollywood Stands up to Cancer event in Culver City, Calif., on Jan. 28. Photos of the two inside (above) show the Iron Man actress, 41 — clad in a sexy cutout frock — smiling as she stands beside her husband of 10 years.
A few weeks earlier, on Jan. 12, the now-estranged spouses put up a united front at the 2014 Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. Martin, 37, was nominated at the time in the Best Original Song category for “Atlas,” from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Paltrow was on hand to support him. At one point during the show, NBC’s cameras lingered briefly on the parents of two (to daughter Apple, 9, and Moses, 7), as they took in the festivities. One observer told Us Weekly they were “extremely cute together.”
The resolutely private twosome also attended a gala that weekend for Sean Penn‘s Help Haiti Home charity. And on Jan. 10, Paltrow took Martin as her date to Diane von Furstenberg’s “Journey of a Dress” exhibition in L.A., where an eyewitness observed them holding hands and laughing.
Prior to that, joint appearances were rare. They did attend the 2013 Met Costume Gala together in New York City, but as Us Weekly noted at the time, they were careful to avoid being photographed together. (Each was photographed separately with Korean pop sensation Psy, however.)
Speaking about their reluctance to pose as a couple back in 2009, the actress told Elle U.K., “It doesn’t behoove us to be a public couple. He certainly doesn’t want that. We’ve never ever walked down a red carpet together, and we never will.”
Paltrow and Martin announced on Tuesday, March 25, that they had decided to part ways after more than 10 years of marriage. “It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate,” they said in a statement. “We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate.”
“We have always conducted our relationship privately,” the statement continued, “and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and co-parent, we will be able to continue in the same manner.”