Friday sees the launch of Netflix's new six-part series The Goop Lab. It's a genuinely fascinating look into the world of lifestyle empire Goop and its boss, Gwyneth Paltrow. The series explores several concepts, like magic mushrooms, psychics and self-love, showing experiments, meeting case studies and presenting new findings. But we also learn a lot about Gwyneth herself. Don't have four hours to catch up with Ms Paltrow? Here, episode by episode, is everything we learn about the Oscar-winning actress from The Goop Lab
In Episode 1, Gwyneth says that she and Brad Falchuck did MDMA when they were dating. 'It was actually very, very emotional. I was with my then-boyfriend, who’s now my husband, and he’s a very empathetic, very profoundly wise person and he was able to help me through it. But it does make me think there’s so much to unearth if I did it.'
In the same episode Gwyneth says: ‘When I started Goop in 2008, I was like “my calling is something else beside making out with Matt Damon on screen”.’ She also touches on her own traumas.
‘I have had incredibly painful and traumatic experiences', she says. 'And I had a lot of trauma in my childhood, and being the person that people perceive me to be is inherently traumatic.’
In Episode 2, Gwyneth says that her son, Moses, takes two minute ice baths in his own wellness journey. He started them when he was eleven.
Later, Gwyneth is asked to do push-ups:
‘I can’t do a push-up!' she objects. 'On this fast? I can barely walk from point A to point B.’ She does manage fifty-five, though. Naturally.
In Episode 3, Gwyneth acknowledges her own self-doubt: ‘So many of us women are caught in this paradigm that we have to look a certain way, and, you know, we’re so critical of ourselves', she says. 'It’s funny ‘cause I’m not critical of another woman’s body, but I’m so critical of my own body.
Also in Episode 3, Gwyneth suggests that past relationships have not satisfied her. ‘The idea that women inherently deserve pleasure, I feel like I’m just, at 46 years old, starting to knit that together. But I think I was very much raised in an era where it was very much about the guy and trying to look good for the guy and do what the guy wanted, like be the cool girl.’
Later, she acknowledges being a sex symbol. ‘I think that I shut that out. Because it’s a fiction, right? It’s all a projection. It’s really nothing to do with me or the quality of who I am or the good things about me or the bad things about me, or my own sexuality. So I feel almost divorced from having that pressure.’
In Episode 4, she addresses her issues with ageing. ‘Whenever someone asks me how old I am, I never think that the answer’s gonna contain a ‘4.’ I feel like I was just used to being in my 30s. In my mind I was 28 for a really long time. 30s are good. 40s are way better. I think that idea that you’re letting go of being identified as a woman of childbearing age, and we live in a culture where that’s such a critical component. Something happens when you turn 40, you just sort of don’t really give a fuck. For me it was incredibly liberating.’
She discusses botox and fillers: ‘I think we’ve just seen overuse of that stuff. Sometimes you would look at somebody and couldn’t tell if they were 25 or 55, you know? People want a more natural way.’ She says this while she is getting a vampire facial, FYI. After this facial, she acknowledges Chris, saying ‘My baby daddy was like, “you look five years younger.”’
In Episode 6, Gwyneth says that she struggled to find a psychic, because she was so famous. ‘I have had one experience with a medium before and just, it hadn’t resonated and I think I’m skeptical', she says. 'I’m like, “this is Google-able, this is Google-able.” you know? You can find out pretty much anything about me.’
In fairness to Gwyneth, that's probably true.
The Goop Lab is on Netflix from Friday
READ MORE:Gwyneth Paltrow Bares All In New Netflix Series The Goop Lab