Gwyneth Paltrow’s Most Controversial Quotes Over the Years

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Gwyneth Paltrow's Most Controversial Quotes Over the Years

Gwyneth Paltrow has never been afraid to speak her mind, even if what she says turns a few heads. After breaking onto the Hollywood scene in 1989 with High — which she followed up with 1991’s Hook— the actress quickly rose to fame. With that success, Paltrow chose to use her platform to be vocal about a variety of topics. The Goop founder has been consistent in speaking her truth when sharing her beliefs, including her thoughts on drinking and dinner parties. "I don't really have drunk friends. My friends are kind of adult; they have a drink,” the Shakespeare in Love actress told the Guardian in January 2006. “But they hold their liquor. I think it's incredibly embarrassing when people are drunk. It just looks so ridiculous. I find it very degrading. The Country Strong star’s remarks don’t stop with beverages. Paltrow has come under fire candid disclosures involving topics of wealth and status as well — but she’s never looked back. "I am who I am. I can't pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year,” she told Elle UK in March 2009. Five years later, the It’s All Easy author claimed that working as an actress and a mother is “much harder” than having a “regular job” and being a parent. Scroll down for a look at some of Paltrow’s most outrageous and obnoxious quotes through the years.

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Gwyneth Paltrow's Most Controversial Quotes Over the Years

Gwyneth Paltrow has never been afraid to speak her mind, even if what she says turns a few heads. After breaking onto the Hollywood scene in 1989 with High — which she followed up with 1991’s Hook— the actress quickly rose to fame. With that success, Paltrow chose to use her platform to be vocal about a variety of topics. The Goop founder has been consistent in speaking her truth when sharing her beliefs, including her thoughts on drinking and dinner parties. "I don't really have drunk friends. My friends are kind of adult; they have a drink,” the Shakespeare in Love actress told the Guardian in January 2006. “But they hold their liquor. I think it's incredibly embarrassing when people are drunk. It just looks so ridiculous. I find it very degrading. The Country Strong star’s remarks don’t stop with beverages. Paltrow has come under fire candid disclosures involving topics of wealth and status as well — but she’s never looked back. "I am who I am. I can't pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year,” she told Elle UK in March 2009. Five years later, the It’s All Easy author claimed that working as an actress and a mother is “much harder” than having a “regular job” and being a parent. Scroll down for a look at some of Paltrow’s most outrageous and obnoxious quotes through the years.

Credit: Mark Mainz/Getty

NY Rock, November 2001

"Beauty fades! I just turned 29, so I probably don't have that many good years left in me."

Credit: Evan Agostini/Getty

NY Daily News, August 2005

"I would rather die than let my kid eat Cup-a-Soup."

Credit: AFP/Getty

The Guardian, January 2006

"I love the English way, which is not as capitalistic as it is in America. People don't talk about work and money; they talk about interesting things at dinner parties."

Credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty

The Guardian, January 2006

"I don't really have drunk friends. My friends are kind of adult; they have a drink. But they hold their liquor. I think it's incredibly embarrassing when people are drunk. It just looks so ridiculous. I find it very degrading."

Credit: Mike Coppola/FilmMagic

The Guardian, January 2006

"Even actresses that you really admire, like Reese Witherspoon, you think, 'Another romantic comedy?' You see her in something like Walk the Line and think, 'God, you're so great!' And then you think, 'Why is she doing these stupid romantic comedies?' But of course, it's for money and status."

Credit: Elisabetta A. Villa/WireImage

Daily Star, February 2006

"Apple says 'Mummy' instead of 'Mommy' — I don't mind that. I will if she starts saying 'basil' and 'pasta' the English way, as that really drives me nuts."

Credit: SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty

Elle UK, March 2009

"I am who I am. I can't pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year."

Credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty

Press Association, July 2010

"Every woman can make time [to work out] — every woman — and you can do it with your baby in the room. There have been countless times where I've worked out with my kids crawling around all over the place. You just make it work."

Credit: Elisabetta Villa/Getty

My Father's Daughter, April 2011

"I basically love anything that comes in a hot dog bun... except hot dogs (sorry, Dad)."

Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

My Father's Daughter, April 2011

"When I pass a flowering zucchini plant in a garden, my heart skips a beat."

Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage

My Father's Daughter, April 2011

"We've got a wood-burning pizza oven in the garden — a luxury, I know, but it's one of the best investments I've ever made."

Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Self, May 2011

"Taking care of yourself is being there for your kids, like how on a plane, they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first."

Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty

iTunes Festival, July 2011

"I'd rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a tin."

Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty

The Daily Mail, September 2011

"I know people that I respect and admire and look up to who have had extramarital affairs."

Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty

Elle, September 2011

"When you go to Paris and your concierge sends you to some restaurant because they get a kickback, it's like, 'No. Where should I really be? Where is the great bar with organic wine? Where do I get a bikini wax in Paris?'"

Credit: Donato Sardella/Getty Images

Goop, June 2012

"I fly all the time. Like, all the time. And I've gotten pretty good at it."

Credit: Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Redbook, January 2013

[On what she would want for her last meal]: "Oysters and cocktail sauce, and then a baked, stuffed lobster and french fries. I would have a baguette and a cheese course for my dessert, and red wine. I drank like crazy [when the kids were babies]. How else could I get through my day?"

Credit: Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Self Magazine, March 2013

"I feel a sisterhood emerging around me. I'm less threatening now that I'm 40 and not 26-with-an-Oscar. There's a sense of love and support."

Credit: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images

Tracy Anderson Event, April 2013

"I said, 'You know, [my butt] isn't so bad for 40, right?' And [my friend] goes, 'It's not so bad for a 22-year-old stripper!'"

Credit: Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

The Observer, April 2013

"I've lived in England for 10 years and the accent is the most beautiful in the world, except for how you pronounce 'pasta' as 'pasta' instead of 'pah-sta.' I'm sort of joking when I say this but I really don't want my children speaking that way."

Credit: Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images

Harper's Bazaar, April 2013

"I'll never forget it. I was starting to hike up the red rocks, and honestly, it was as if I heard the rock say, 'You have the answers. You are your teacher.' I thought I was having an auditory hallucination."

Credit: Victor Chavez/WireImage

Harper's Bazaar, April 2013

"I don't hold onto fear as much as I used to, because I've learned a lot about genuinely not caring what strangers think about me. It's very liberating. It's very empowering, and I've learned a lot of that from Jay-Shawn Carter-Z, because his approach to life is very internal. It's a very good lesson to learn."

Credit: Lester Cohen/Getty Images

Harper's Bazaar, April 2013

"Just to have my kids be in the sun every day — picking avocados, going for a swim. Even for two years or something, and come back when they go to senior school."

Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Entertainment Weekly, May 2013

"[Miranda Kerr] was wearing a black Michael Kors dress that was sort of like a sparkling bandeau, and her whole stomach was showing. It was really beautiful. It was a little punk-y. She's just so pretty, it's abnormal. I was like, 'Is it weird to be that pretty?'"

Credit: Christian Augustin/Getty Images

Kyle and Jackie Show, May 2013

"Do you want me to be honest? [The Met Gala] sucked. It seems like it's the best thing in the world, you always think, 'Oh my god, it's gonna be so glamorous and amazing and you're going to see all these people,' and then you get there and it's so hot and it's so crowded and everyone's pushing you."

Credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images

British Cosmopolitan, July 2013

"We're human beings and the sun is the sun — how can it be bad for you? I think we should all get sun and fresh air. I don't think anything that is natural can be bad for you — it's really good to have at least 15 minutes of sun a day."

Credit: Luca Teuchmann/WireImage

March 2014

"It's much harder for me — I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it's not like being on set."

Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Entertainment Industry Foundation

Goop, March 2014

"We have always conducted our relationship privately and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and co-parent, we will be able to continue in the same manner."

Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Re/Code, May 2014

"You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing. It's almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it. My hope is, as we get out of it, we’ll reach the next level of conscience."

Credit: Donato Sardella/Getty Images

Goop, May 2014

"A few weeks ago during an interview, I was asked why I have only worked on one film a year since having children. My answer was this: Film work takes one away from home and requires 12-14 hours a day, making it difficult to be the one to make the kids their lunch, drive them to school, and put them to bed. So I have found it easier on my family life to make a film the exception, and my 9-5 job the rule. This somehow was taken to mean I had said a 9-5 job is easier, and a lot of heat was thrown my way, especially by other working mothers who somehow used my out-of-context quote as an opportunity to express feelings (perhaps projected) on the subject. As the mommy wars rage on, I am constantly perplexed and amazed by how little slack we cut each other as women."

Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Goop, June 2014

"I am fascinated by the growing science behind the energy of consciousness and its effects on matter. I have long had Dr. Emoto's coffee table book on how negativity changes the structure of water, how the molecules behave differently depending on the words or music being expressed around it."

Credit: Craig Barritt/Getty Images

The Kit, September 2014

"My books are No. 1 New York Times best sellers, my website is growing every day and is very successful. If people who know me and love me have a criticism, then I really want to hear it. But if not, it’s just a projection, like I’m a screen, and it’s not about me, so I don’t absorb it."

Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

CNN Money, March 2015

"I'm incredibly close to the common woman in that I'm a woman and I'm a mother. We all are in a physical body with beating hearts, with compassion and love. We are all seekers, we all want questions, we all want fulfillment, we want to live our best lives. We want to be healthy and happy and squeeze the most that we can out of life. I think that's all women."

Credit: JB Lacroix/WireImage

Today Show, March 2016

"We took some investment last year, so as soon as we had other people's money, I realized I really better focus on this completely. I'll return to acting probably, but probably not right now.”

Credit: Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Goop, April 2016

“You know, crack might be extreme, but spray cheese is not my kind of party.”

Credit: Venturelli/WireImage

The Cut, July 2016

"The first time I tried v-steaming, I was like, 'This is insane.’ My friend Ben brought me and I was like, 'You are out of your f--king mind. What is this?'”

Credit: JB Lacroix/WireImage

Women’s Health, March 2017

“[My readers] are not without judgment. When you’re at the forefront of something that’s new, people can get really reactive: ‘This is crazy! Why are you doing this?’ Then, five years later, everyone’s fine with it. So I have a bit of pattern recognition in hand at this point — which is helpful,” Paltrow said. “Also, when someone doesn’t like something you do, or doesn’t share your interest in something, that doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

Credit: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Girlboss Radio, August 2017

“I’ve f—ked up so many relationships. So many,” she said. “I’m actually a pretty good friend and a good sister and a daughter and a mother, but I am at my potentially most vulnerable and f—ked up in the romantic slice of the pie. So it’s taken me a lot of work to get to the place where I have a good romantic relationship.”

Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

WSJ Magazine, December 2018

“That was the beginning of people thinking I was a crackpot. Like, ‘What do you mean food can affect your health, you f—king psycho?” Paltrow said of the 2008 launch of her lifestyle blog Goop. “I remember when I started doing yoga and people were like, ‘What is yoga? She’s a witch. She’s a freak.’”

Credit: Lorne Thomson/Redferns

New York Times, March 2019

"The press was super negative and there were personal attacks about what I was feeding my children and what kind of mother I am. Now the gluten-free market is huge."

Credit: Courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow/Instagram

Today Show, September 2019

“[Parenting teenagers] is the best. They’re really coming into themselves. They’re hilarious. They’re smart. They can talk. They can sort of muse about things — it’s the greatest. Yeah, they can be kind of, you know, d--ks once in a while.”

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

‘Literally! With Rob Lowe’ Podcast, July 2020

“I met Sheryl before I met you,” Paltrow told Rob Lowe of his wife, Sheryl Berkoff. “I met the Mrs. Lowe when I was 15 or 16. I met Sheryl and I was immediately obsessed with her. First of all, she was dating Keanu Reeves, who was my celebrity crush. And she was so cool.” The Goop founder recalled Berkoff knowing that she was “sneaking cigarettes, and she would come smoke with me behind the trailer [and] she taught me how to give a b--wjob, and you know, all the classic Sheryl stuff. I just worshipped her. I thought she was literally the coolest chick of all time, and she was so awesome to me and I was a high school kid.”

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Elle, September 2020

After releasing the “This Smells Like My Vagina” and “This Smells Like My Orgasm” candles on Goop, Paltrow told Elle in September 2020 that she “really wants” to release one called, “This Smells Like My WAP” but added, “nobody seems to think it’s a good idea but me.” The cookbook author continued by saying that she thinks Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s explicit “WAP” track and her company’s sexually inspired candles are “all part of crumbling patriarchy” and there should be more of it. 

“I think that we're all changing it by releasing, like, a punk rock, feminist candle and Cardi B is changing it by her incredible lyrical prowess. You have to push, you have to go too far,” she explained. “You have to have a ‘WAP’ song or a ‘Smells Like My Vagina’ candle so people are like, ‘What is this?’ And they freak out. And then the center moves a little bit more this way. It's a process that happens over time. But women, especially my generation, and my mother's generation, we were raised to feel so uncomfortable with ourselves and it's bulls--t. It's not cool. We have to be integrated and love ourselves, love every part and integrate all of the parts of ourselves. So I think it's a good part of the process.”

Credit: Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Who's in My Bathroom? With Hailey Bieber, July 2022

The Iron Man actress opened up about her thoughts on nepotism in Hollywood while appearing on the model's YouTube show. 

“As the child of someone, you get access other people don’t have, so the playing field is not level in that way,” Paltrow, who is the daughter of actress Blythe Dancer and director Bruce Paltrow, sad. “However, I really do feel that once your foot is in the door, which you unfairly got in, then you almost have to work twice as hard and be twice as good. Because people are ready to pull you down and say ‘You don’t belong there’ or ‘You are only there because of your dad or your mom.'"

She added that being a nepotism baby shouldn't “limit your dreams” and that there is “nobody in the world" who should "have a negative impact on your path or the decision that you make.”

Bieber, who is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, replied, “I need to hear this today.”

Credit: Courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow/Instagram

CBS Sunday Morning, September 2022

Paltrow expressed her feelings about sending daughter Apple, then 18, to college during an interview on CBS Sunday Morning. "I know this sounds nuts, [but] it feels almost as profound as giving birth," the proud mom said.

Credit: Broadimage/Shutterstock

'The Art of Being Well,' March 2023

“I eat dinner early in the evening. I do a nice intermittent fast,” Paltrow said during a March 2023 appearance on Dr. Will Cole’s “The Art of Being Well” podcast, revealing her daily diet. “I usually eat something [at] about 12. And in the morning, I’ll have some things that won’t spike my blood sugar. So, I have coffee. But I really like soup for lunch. I have bone broth for lunch [a lot of days].”

The MCU star, who noted it is “really important” to support her detox, quickly caught flak from social media users — and celebrities — who claimed Paltrow’s diet promoted disordered eating.

“No wonder there is an Ozempic craze sweeping the nation and ‘heroic chic’ thinness is back on the fashion runways,” Meghan McCain wrote via her Daily Mail column at the time. “This ‘wellness’ trend is making us sick. And Gwyneth Paltrow is part of the problem.” 

Bethenny Frankel, meanwhile, defended Paltrow. "It’s not for 18-year-olds, I think it’s for moms — and we all know her schtick, we’ve been hearing it for years,” the reality TV alum said via Instagram, claiming the Goop founder’s demographics are primarily other middle-aged mothers.

Credit: Getty Images

Vogue, October 2023

The actress revealed her Best Actress Academy Award — which she won in 1999 for her role in Shakespeare in Love — is used prop open the entrance to her garden.

“My doorstop," she said while pointing out the Oscar during an episode of Vogue’s 73 Questions series. “It works perfectly."