A new biography about Gwyneth Paltrow is set to be released this month and it contains bombshell after bombshell.
Gwyneth: The Biography was written by Amy Odell, the author who wrote Anna, the bestselling biography from 2022 about Vogue’s former long-running editor, Anna Wintour.
In Gwyneth, the biographer delves into the GOOP founder’s relationships with famous men, her fallouts with her famous friends, and how she really feels about her most polarising role.
Here are the biggest bombshells from Gwyneth.
WHAT ENDED HER ENGAGEMENT TO BRAD PITT
For a short time in the mid-90s, Gwyneth and Brad Pitt were the ‘It couple’.
The couple met during an audition for Legends of the Fall and were later cast as husband and wife in Se7en.
They became engaged in December 1996 but it was all over six months later.
According to the book, Brad was jealous of Gwyneth’s rising star and Gwyneth believed they were raised too differently.
“Brad and I came from completely different backgrounds,” she says in the biography. “Our emotional worlds just didn’t always align, and that created a real tension between us.”
The 52-year-old admits she often felt confused during their relationship and even had a crush on another actor while they were together.
“I was honest with Brad about how I felt,” she says. “During our relationship, I realised I had a crush on Hugh Grant. It wasn’t about him, really — it was about me figuring out who I was.”
The couple broke up in June 1997 after the release of Emma. There was speculation at the time that one of them had cheated, something the Sliding Doors star denies in the biography.
“There were a lot of rumours, but it really just came down to me not being ready for something so serious. It wasn’t about anyone else,” she says.
“Looking back, I just wasn’t as self-aware as I am now. I had to do a lot of growing up.”
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED BETWEEN HER AND WINONA RYDER
The biography revisits the long-standing rumour that Gwyneth and fellow actress Winona Ryder fell out because Gwyneth stole a script from Winona’s house.
According to the rumour, Gwyneth was visiting her famous pal’s house when she noticed a script for Shakespeare in Love lying on a coffee table. She allegedly stole the script, went for the part and landed the role of Viola, which would later earn her an Oscar.
In the biography, Amy says there’s no evidence Winona was ever formally offered the part. The biographer notes that “after a story about Gwyneth allegedly stealing the script from Winona’s coffee table reached the media, Gwyneth told friends that Ryder had started the rumour and insisted she’d received the script through her agent.”
Gwyneth has always called the story an “urban myth” but the timing did coincide with the end of their friendship.
WHAT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH BEN AFFLECK WAS REALLY LIKE
After splitting up with Brad Pitt, Gwyneth dated Ben Affleck on and off for three years.
“Her friends thought Ben was more of an intellectual match. But he had demons,” Amy writes in the book. “Affleck was struggling with alcoholism and a gambling habit around the time he met Gwyneth.”
Despite their obvious chemistry, Gwyneth’s friends didn’t think Ben treated her right.
“Her friends had reservations about him because he didn’t always reciprocate her affection. He at times seemed more interested in playing video games with the guys at his house than being with Gwyneth,” claims the biography.
“Her friends felt like he did not appreciate her. She would be making dinner, and he would want to go out with the guys.”
WHY SHE REALLY FELL OUT WITH MADONNA
Madonna was married to Sean Penn when she first became friends with Gwyneth. The pair struck up a friendship after Gwyneth’s dad asked Sean’s dad to get Madonna to stop Gwyneth from smoking.
The women became even closer friends when Gwyneth was married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Madonna was married to director Guy Ritchie.
However, their friendship reportedly soured after Madonna turned up on an island where Gwyneth was holidaying with Chris.
“Madonna seemed to know that Gwyneth would be there, which Gwyneth seemed to find strange,” Amy writes in the biography.
“Madonna then insisted Gwyneth and Martin join her for a big group dinner at a long table where Madonna went off on her daughter, Lourdes.”
The biographer claims the famous couple were “disgusted by the behaviour”.
“I can’t be around this woman any more… she’s awful,” the Coldplay frontman allegedly said before Gwyneth ended the friendship.
WHAT IT WAS REALLY LIKE TO “CONSCIOUSLY UNCOUPLE” FROM CHRIS MARTIN
In 2002, the same year she lost her father to cancer, Gwyneth met Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
Despite their whirlwind romance, Gwyneth’s friends were skeptical about the coupling, claiming “something didn’t quite click”.
In 2014, the pair announced they had “consciously uncoupled”.
According to the book, Gwyneth had privately split from Chris a year earlier and had decided to frame the split as aspirational.
“While she privately struggled to generate optimism about the separation, she found a way to do it publicly, to turn this painful, confusing failure into a project that might inspire and illuminate — and maybe boost the brand,” the book claims.
HOW SHE REALLY FEELS ABOUT HER ROLE IN SHALLOW HAL
In the 2001 romantic comedy Shallow Hal, Gwyneth wore a prosthetic suit, aka a ‘fat suit’, to play an overweight woman named Rosemary.
It’s a role that has sat uneasy with the actress for the rest of her career. In the biography, Amy says that Gwyneth has referred to the experience as one of the “lowest points of her career”.
“Gwyneth told friends that she felt like the film could bring attention to what would later be widely termed fatshaming,” the book reads.
While filming the movie, Gwyneth wore the fat suit and went for a walk around Charlotte, North Carolina, to see how people reacted to her.
“I got a real sense of what it would be like to be that overweight, and every pretty girl should be forced to do that,” she said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the time of the movie’s release.
“It was so sad; it was so disturbing. No one would make eye contact with me because I was obese,” she said in a September 2001 interview with W magazine.
“I felt humiliated because people were really dismissive.”
Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell will be released on August 5, 2025.
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