Though Gwyneth Paltrow was once famous for starring in movies like Shakespeare in Love and Contagion, these days she's more known for her lifestyle brand, Goop, and the totally off-the-wall things she's said in interviews. Whether it's a wacky new wellness product she has to share or a candle that smells like the more intimate areas of her body, Gwyneth definitely knows how to get people talking — and how to get at the wallets of her dedicated Goop followers.
Now Gwyneth is getting ready to launch her next Netflix series, Sex, Love, & Goop, which will focus on pleasure and kinks. And there's no doubt it will stir up even more controversy than her first show on the streaming platform, The Goop Lab, did when it debuted in 2020.
From her questionable (and expensive) Goop products to her out-of-touch comments that she hasn't realized make her totally unrelatable to her fans, here some of the most controversial moments of Gwyneth's career so far.
Her Food Choices
Over the years, Gwyneth has been outspoken about the foods she will and won't eat — but mostly about what she won't eat. According to the New York Daily News, not only did she say that she'd "rather die than let my kid eat Cup-a-Soup," but she'd also "rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a tin."
The Jade Egg
Among, the, um, more interesting products that Goop has sold over the years is the Jade Yoni egg, which isn't just a stone to display in your house. Nope, according to Gwyneth and the Goop gang, this $66 egg (which actually isn't an egg at all) is supposed to be inserted into a woman's vagina to improve "chi, orgasms, vaginal muscle tone, hormonal balance, and feminine energy in general," which is a lot of responsibility to put on a rock.
Vaginal Steaming
While we're on the topic of Gwyneth and vaginal health, back in 2015 she took to Goop to talk about a rather interesting service she received at a spa in Los Angeles.
"The real golden ticket here is the Mugworth V-Steam. You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al," she wrote at the time. "It is an energetic release — not just a steam douche — that balances female hormone levels. If you're in LA, you have to do it."
OB-GYNs were quick to recommend against this treatment, claiming it causes more harm than good.
Criticism of Reese Witherspoon
Even though Gwyneth and Reese Witherspoon have certainly seemed friendly over the years, there was a time when she was famously critical of her work during an interview with The Guardian in 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," she said.
Her Very Expensive Sex Toy
In a sex toy guide she wrote for Goop, Gwyneth made one very unrealistic recommendation: a $15,000 24-carat gold dildo from Lelo. Fortunately, the price has since dropped to a much more affordable $3,450, but is that actually affordable? Maybe in Gwyneth's world.
The Infamous Vagina Candle
Somehow, a lot of the most controversial products Gwyneth has promoted have to do with vaginas — and this one has to do with hers specifically. In January 2020, Gwyneth sold a candle called "This Smells Like My Vagina," and it was so successful that it led to another called "This Smells Like My Orgasm."
Her Netflix Series
In early 2020, Gwyneth and Goop launched a Netflix series, The Goop Lab, and almost instantly received criticism for the way it showcased wellness products that weren't backed by medicine. In response, a spokesperson for Goop told the BBC that the company is "transparent when [covering] emerging topics that may be unsupported by science or may be in early stages of review."
Her Take on American Parties
After spending time in Europe, Gwyneth wasn't too impressed by what American parties had to offer, inspiring one of her most pretentious quotes ever.
"We have great dinner parties at which everyone sits around talking about politics, history, art, and literature — all this peppered with really funny jokes," she told Elle magazine in 2011, via DListed. "But back in America, I was at a party and a girl looked at me and said, 'Oh, my God! Are those Juicy jeans that you're wearing?' and I thought, 'I can't stay here. I have to get back to Europe.'"
In Goop Health Summits
Gwyneth has been known for throwing an annual Goop convention called In Goop Health, but it never ends up being what the participants hope for. As one attendee wrote for Refinery29, tickets are expensive, costing thousands of dollars for the weekend, and Gwyneth isn't quite as accessible to fans as they'd hope for that price.
Her COVID-19 Treatment
In early 2021, Gwyneth revealed she'd been diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020, and afterwards had struggled with long-haul symptoms. But the controversial part came when she explained that, to help with the inflammation in her body, she'd been doing intuitive fasting and using infrared saunas — something that doctors didn't recommend.
"In the last few days, I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering from the effects of COVID-19. We wish her well, but some of the solutions she's recommending are really not the solutions we'd recommend," NHS leader Stephen Powis told the BBC.
How She Survived Being a Younger Mom
In an interview with Redbook, Gwyneth opened up about how she survived the day when her kids, Apple and Moses, were little, and she admitted she had to drink to get through it.
"I drank like crazy [when the kids were babies]. How else could I get through my day?" she said.
Her Income
Gwyneth also turned heads when she admitted that she can't relate to people who make less money than her — and from this quote, it sounds like she's not even going to try.
"I am who I am. I can't pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year," she said in an interview with Elle (via The New York Post).
Her 'Conscious Uncoupling' Announcement
One of the biggest — and most controversial — moments in Gwyneth Paltrow's life was the way she announced her divorce from Chris Martin. In a statement she shared on Goop, she said they were "consciously uncoupling," inventing a term that continues to haunt her to this day.
Bee Sting Therapy
Another controversial therapy that Gwyneth uses: bee sting therapy, or apitherapy, which is getting stung by bees on purpose for supposed health benefits. As she explained in an interview with The New York Times, "People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It's actually pretty incredible if you research it. But, man, it's painful."
On Finding Time to Work Out
According to Gwyneth, finding the time to work out as a mom should be pretty simple — at least, that's what she told the Press Association, via ABC News.
"Every woman can make time — every woman — and you can do it with your baby in the room," she said. "There have been countless times when I've worked out with my kids crawling around all over the place. You just make it work."
Her Thoughts on Working Moms
In an interview with E! News, Gwyneth once said that she felt being an actress was harder than being a working mom with any other job, which obviously earned her some backlash.
"I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening," she told the outlet. "When you're shooting a movie, they're like, 'We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,' and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. 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."
