How Does Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin Co-Parent Their Kids?
In the 2000s, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin were one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. However, like a lot of celebrity marriages, things turned sour and the pair eventually parted ways.
It’s been a few years after Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin officially divorced, so how have the two of them been co-parenting their children and what has that been like for their family?
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s relationship and family
In 2002, the two met each other at a Coldplay concert. Gwyneth Paltrow was actually a fan of the band and, being a well-known actress herself, got the chance to meet frontman Chris Martin after the show. Paltrow and Martin hit it off and soon
The couple got married not long afterwards – in December 2003. They ended up having two children together.
Apple is the name of their oldest child. The daughter was born in May 2004. She is turning 15 this year and is a musician just like her dad.
Their second child is a son who was born in April 2006. He was named Moses after the Coldplay song that Chris Martin wrote for Gwyneth Paltrow. He is turning 13 this year.
After several years together, however, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin began to grow apart. The cause for this seemed to have been the fact that they each had busy careers that made it hard to be together. “They have worked really hard for a year or more, going to therapy, trying to make it work,” a source told People. “…but they just decided it was best to not be together anymore as a couple.”
In 2014, Paltrow and Martin announced that they had separated. Their divorce was finalized in 2016.
How they are co-parenting their kids after the divorce
Divorces can be tough for both parents and their kids, regardless of whether one’s family is famous or not. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, however, have been trying their best to minimize as much of the negative effects for their children as possible.
Their strategy can be summed up in two words: conscious uncoupling. According to a blog post written by two doctors on the website for Paltrow’s company Goop, conscious uncoupling simply refers to a process that will help couples split amicably. It involves things such as being aware of one’s own part in the divorce, respecting the other person, and thinking about the children’s needs.
“When we understand that both are actually partners in each other’s spiritual progress, animosity dissolves much quicker,” the doctors wrote. “It’s only under these circumstances that loving co-parenting can happen.”
Paltrow and Martin learned from other divorces
Gwyneth Paltrow once shared that she and Martin decided to make a real effort at being good co-parents after she looked into how other kids have experienced divorces. “The most common wound that I heard from children of divorce was, ‘My parents couldn’t be in the same room and couldn’t be friends. It took three years, it took 18 years, it took—you know, God forbid—the death of a close family member for them to sit at the same table.”
Because of this, Paltrow and Martin wanted to try and remain on good terms with each other so their own children would not have to go through the same thing. “Both Chris and I have made a commitment to continue to love the things about each other that we’ve always loved and to really continue to develop our friendship and to find ways to continue to communicate,” she recently told the Today show. “You really have to focus on forgiveness and spite that comes up. You have to let it go.”
Paltrow also admitted that the process was not easy at first, though she and Martin have made lots of progress throughout the year. These days, things seem easier for the two of them.
Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin also have new partners now. Paltrow recently got married to producer Brad Falchuk and Martin is dating Fifty Shades of Grey actress Dakota Johnson. The four of them reportedly get along quite well (they even celebrated Thanksgiving together), so it looks like conscious uncoupling definitely has done wonders for Paltrow and Martin’s post-divorce family.
