In a sensational jumpsuit with a navel-gazing neckline, she looks like the kind of a glamourpuss who slinks from one photoshoot to another. But in reality Gwyneth Paltrow limits her assignments to be home in time to prepare dinner for her husband Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and their children, Apple, seven, and Moses, five.
The Hollywood golden girl opened up about dealing with the conundrum faced by many modern women in a magazine interview. Like her own mother Blythe Danner, an actress who was a stay-at-home mum to Gwyneth and her brother Jake, she prioritises family life over her career. “I have little kids in school. I want to maintain my marriage and my family, so I have to be here when he comes home," the Iron Man actress told Harpers Bazaar. The 39-year-old has previously explained that she tends to choose supporting – over lead – roles for this very reason.
Describing advice she gave to a friend, she said: "She is an actress and in a new relationship with someone else with a big career, and I said this may not be feminist, but you have to compromise. "It's been all about you and you're a big deal. And if you want what you're saying you want – a family – you have to be a wife, and that is part of the equation." Her pal Madonna has also spoken of the difficulties of keeping a relationship together. The Queen of Pop, who was married to director Guy Ritchie, asked herself during their union 'How much am I willing to sacrifice?' While Madonna and Guy were sadly unable to go the distance, their friends have had more luck.
Gwyneth said: "We've been married for more than eight years now, and we're still into it. "I think you do fall in and out of love and you just keep going, and every time you go through a really difficult phase, you rediscover something new and it just gets better."