Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Falchuk Share Rare Insight into Blended Family
Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk love their blended family.
The couple—who got married in 2018 after four years of dating—reflected on how they successfully brought their children from their previous relationships together to form a big new modern family.
"I just remember before the boys left for college, the night before," Brad—who shares Isabella, 19, and Brody, 18, with ex-wife Suzanne Bukinik—recalled to Gwyneth on the April 8 episode of The goop Podcast. "I think somebody was going, one of the girls was going first. So it was like the last night, and it happened to be on a Wednesday. We had a last Wednesday night dinner."
In fact, he noted his duo and her kids Apple, 20, and Moses, 19, with ex Chris Martin, had no interested in chatting with their parents.
"And I don't think the kids said two words to us because they were so...yapping with each [other] and having such a good time," the Glee creator continued, "and we were sitting at them just looking over at them being like, 'Oh my gosh. It worked.'"
And, while the 54-year-old is confident in their successes as parents, he admitted that they initially weren't so sure how blending their families was going to go.
"It worked, right?" Brad pondered. "But we would never have believed it would have worked—it was gonna work—early on. But with that consistency and with the belief in what the truth was, worked for us."
Gwyneth echoed her husband's sentiments and reflected on a similar moment from around that same time period when their kids really started to mesh well together just as they started going off to college.
"It started to just feel really light and really cohesive," the Sliding Doors actress recalled, "and, since then, we've had so many moments like that. It keeps deepening. It's such a particular kind of delight to see our four kids in their own relationships and being friends with each other and loving each other."
And beyond detailing the kids’ current dynamics, Gwyneth and Brad also shared insight into why they "started slow" when it came to bringing their children together. Still, she admitted that she "made a ton of mistakes as a stepmother looking back and if I could I think I would've done things differently."
Ultimately, though, the couple pointed to creating a shared family ritual of mandatory Wednesday night dinners that helped them slowly but surely make it work.
"We made sure that the six of us had dinner together every Wednesday night, through good times and bad, sunshine and rain," Gwyneth explained. "Every one of the four kids knew that it was sacred, we knew it was sacred and we said no to everything else."
"What that does is carve out this world that we all step into," the 52-year-old added. "That was a very sacred, delineated time for us every week. Now, when we're all together having dinner, there's this history there, which you can feel."
For more of Gwyneth’s best mom moments, keep reading…
No, they are never, ever, ever getting back together. But at this point—between the birthday parties, the friendly embraces and even freaking acting out a sexual fantasy in a star-studded virtual reading of Fast Times at Ridgemont High—it feels like the former Hollywood golden couple is just taunting us.
You know you're cool when you can pop into your ex's talk show and give him a hard time. Such was the case when Sarah turned up on Jimmy's stage to chat about her new show, I Love You, America and his "cute," "bright," "funny" wife Molly Kimmel. "It's not fair!" she cracked. "She gets, like, new woke Jimmy. I had Man Show Jimmy."
TBH, we might still be mourning this relationship harder than either of its participants. Because when Anna—now married to cinematographer Michael Barrett—heard that Pratt was set to wed Katherine Schwarzenegger in 2019, she offered to officiate. She even sent over a gift after the newlyweds welcomed daughter Lyla in August 2020. Thrilled for son Jack to become a big brother, a source told E! News at the time that Anna "is very supportive."
It would have been super easy for the exes' relationship to become a flop. But more than four years after a messy split, the HGTV stars are still killing it at two projects: parenting kids Taylor and Brayden and turning run-down properties into someone else's dream home.
Literally "best friends" as the rocker put it in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the parents to actress Zoe Kravitz still consider themselves kin. "We're one big happy family," Lenny said of his ex, who went on to wed Jason Momoa before their 2020 split. "It's beautiful, and it just shows you what can be done."
Since their 2015 breakup, the parents to Violet, Seraphina and Samuel have hit the conscious uncoupling trifecta: Joint vacations, shared holidays and public displays of admiration with Ben dubbing his ex "an amazing mother" during a 2016 interview with E! News.
Nina and Ian may have called it quits in 2013 after three years of dating, but they've remained close friends since then. In 2014, the Vampire Diaries star started dating Nikki Reed and tied the knot later that year. Naturally, Dobrev befriended the Twilight actress.
The two called it quits in July 2016 after five years together. The singer said on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show the following October that she's "very close" to Kinney, adding, "He's been my lover and a friend for so long."
"We love each other," she said. "That's it."
The Office's on-and-off pairing remained so tantalizingly close after the series wrapped in 2013 that even Mindy gets why people are still shipping them. "If I was on the outside looking at it, I would think the same thing," she told Good Housekeeping in 2019 of naming him godparent to her kids. "But the truth is that B.J. is so much more like family now than a platonic friend."
The exes had no trouble coparenting their son, Bronx, after finalizing their divorce back in 2011. The Fall Out Boy singer has even said his former wife is "an awesome mom."
So she's over those "7 Things" then? The JoBro musician has said he's "really friendly" with his ex. "We've got a good relationship."
The Dexter stars first met on set in 2006 before things got romantic in 2008. And although they divorced in 2011, Jennifer assured there was "nothing but love and respect" between the exes a few years later.
Long the gold standard of copacetic exes, the parents to daughters Rumer, Tallulah and Scout remain so tight that the decision to ride out coronavirus stay-at-home orders together in Idaho was a no-brainer. Quarantine dance party anyone?
Some four years after their 2014 divorce, Lopez was still giving her former spouse, dad to her twins Max and Emme, props. "While I was married to Marc, he really helped me with my confidence and he saw where I suffered," she said on a 2018 episode of Sunday Today. "He was like, 'You're a great singer. Don't ever let anybody tell you you're not a great singer.' And I respected him so much 'cause I consider him one of the best singers of all time."
Even if it hasn't been his day, his week, his month or even his year, the actress will be there for her former husband and Scream costar. "I mean, as divorces go, I would say it's one of the better ones. For sure," she shared on Running Wild With Bear Grylls eight years after their 2010 split. Raising daughter Coco, she continued, "We're good co-parents together."
Their real life romance may have fizzled in 2007. However, that doesn't mean the two couldn't heat up the screen in the 2011 movie Bad Teacher.
Sure, the initial few months of their 2013 split were rough going, but the actors have now reached the group vacation stage of their divorce. "I really like her husband and I think he's a great guy," the Twilight alum told LaPalme Magazine of a 2017 trip to Cancun that included Garth, Dave Abrams, Peter's now-fiancée Lily Anne Harrison and their three daughters Luca, Lola and Fiona. As for his relationship with Jennie, he continued, "People come into your life for a reason and relationships can change," he told LaPalme. "Just because we aren't living together doesn't mean you can't love each other."
Despite a surprise separation in September 2012, the couple decided to put on a united front for their children. "As you know, Will and I are very, very good friends," she explained during a 2014 interview with Howard Stern. "We are doing a really good job. I don't think a 10-year marriage constitutes a failure. I think relationships are really tough."
eonline
