Gwyneth Paltrow‘s life might be filled with red carpets and fashion shows, but when she’s not hard at work on a movie set or running her lifestyle and wellness brand Goop, the 52-year-old mother-of-two says she’s just like any other parent – trying to stay afloat as she juggles her competing work and family responsibilities.
“I’m just a normal mother with the same struggles as any other mother who’s trying to do everything at once and trying to be a wife and maintain a relationship. There’s absolutely nothing perfect about my life, but I just try hard,” she told USA Today.
The actor has two children with her ex-husband and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin – Apple, 20, and Moses, 18 – and the former married couple happily co-parent their kids together in Los Angeles.
Gwyneth’s second husband Brad Falchuk, who she married in 2018, also has two kids of his own from a previous relationship.
But even though she’s Gwyneth Paltrow and is a certified movie star, her kids certainly don’t think of their mother as such. To them, she’s just Mum.
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Keep scrolling to find out more about the wonderful, modern relationship Gwyneth has with her two gorgeous children.
Apple Martin
Those baby blue eyes! (Instagram)
Gwyneth and Chris’ first child, daughter Apple, was born on 14 May 2004 in London.
A few months after she was born, the pair revealed the reason behind her unique name was basically, “Because when we were first pregnant, her daddy said one day, if it’s a girl I think her name should be Apple, and it just sounded so sweet and it conjures such a lovely picture for me, you know apples are so sweet and they’re wholesome and it’s biblical and I just thought it sounded so lovely, and then she was born and it became an international outrage, which I found surprising.”
Gwyneth and Apple are like two peas in a pod and we cannot get over how similar they look!
The Oscar winner often uploads photos of her eldest child to Instagram and her followers always comment on how Apple is quickly growing to look like her mother.
And the pair are clearly super close, with Gwyneth often posting adorable tributes to her daughter on social media.
“Happy 20th birthday, @applemartin 💕How can it be that you are 20 today?,” the proud mum wrote in May 2024, to celebrate the day Apple officially exited her teenage years.
“It feels surreal! You are the most extraordinary, the most hilarious, the most brilliant.. I love your WWII insights as much as I love your physical comedy. You are the most fun to be with and you have always been. From those days when it was always you and me to now, you are my lil ride or die. You are everything to me and I am so proud of you. Have the best day, my peanut. 💕mama.”
Apple is quickly growing into the splitting image of her mother. (Instagram)
The pair are so close that Gwyneth occasionally used to let her skip school and have a mother-daughter day.
“I’ll probably get [removed from] our school for admitting this, but I let Apple stay home yesterday,” she told Good Housekeeping in 2011.
“I just needed to be with her. We went out to lunch, we went to the beauty salon, we were together.”
Moses Martin
Moses Martin, Gwyneth and Chris’ second child and only son, was born almost two years after Apple on 8 April 2006.
Moses. now 18, has remained less in the spotlight than his sister, but he takes after his father in terms of his love of music.
During a Zoom appearance from Gwyneth on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2020, Moses popped in and started speaking about his interest in music.
“I’m really into music. … Right now I’d say I’m playing guitar the most; it used to be piano for a while, and now I’m doing guitar lessons again.”
He even performed with Chris Martin at the Boys & Girls Club fundraiser in Malibu in 2016.
In honour of his milestone 18th birthday in April 2024, Gwyneth shared a loving tribute to her son, writing, “Happy 18th birthday to you, my son. I am so proud of who you are. I love your sensitivity and brilliance and quiet humor. I admire how deep you go into areas that interest you, becoming an expert in synths from the 80’s and the French new wave.
“I love how much you love the people you love, but also how internal you are. There is such a magnificent world of ideas and harmonies inside that beautiful head of yours. I am unbelievably proud of the person you are today, as you cross over the threshold into adulthood. I love you more than words can say, @mosesmartin you absolutely kill me. ❤️Mama.”
As for what’s next for the teenager, he recently began attending Brown University.
While Gwyneth was understandably heartbroken about him leaving for college, she is also very excited for Moses to embark on his own life journey and make lifelong memories.
“On the one hand, [I feel] incredible sadness. A deep sense of impending grief,” she told The Sunday Times. “On the other hand, this is exactly what should be happening.
“Your kids are supposed to be, you know, young adults who can achieve and cope and make connections and be resilient. That’s exactly what you want. And that means they leave the house.”
Gwyneth and Chris Martin happily co-parent together
Ever since Gwyneth and Chris “consciously uncoupled” in 2014, they have still remained friends who love each other and support one another as parents.
“It’s like we are still a family, but not a couple,” the Avengers actress told Marie Claire Australia in 2019.
“I think we are better as friends than we were [married]. We are very close and supportive of one another.”
When they first split, their main priority was their children.
“We just wanted to minimise the pain for the kids,” she told Live with Kelly and Ryan at the time. “They just want to see their parents around the dinner table, basically, so we just try to keep that.”
Now they spend important milestones like birthdays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day together
After Gywneth and Brad’s wedding in 2018, rather than taking a romantic couple’s trip away with just the two of them, they went on a big family vacation, along with Brad’s children, as well as Chris’s new girlfriend, actress Dakota Johnson.
“We just took our honeymoon in the Maldives and we had a big family honeymoon over Christmas,” Gwyneth told Live with Kelly and Ryan earlier this year.
“So, my new husband and his children, my children, my ex-husband, our best family friends [all went]. It was a very modern honeymoon,” she continued.
When asked about what their typical dinner table conversation is like, Gwyneth replied, “Oh, just great conversation and lots of kids and you know what, it was great, we had such a good time.”
