Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth Paltrow’s father, died in 2002 at the age of 58 following a protracted fight with throat cancer.
Gwyneth Paltrow is speaking up about her grief over two decades after her father Bruce Paltrow died.
On the April edition of Holly Willoughby’s By the Light of the Moon podcast, the Oscar winner, 49, reflected on the death of her filmmaker father Bruce, who died in 2002 at the age of 58 after a protracted battle with throat cancer. Her initial sadness was “very physical” at the moment, she added, and she “felt it was going to break me up.”
“I woke up in the middle of the night and believed I was having a heart attack,” she recalled after the burial, “and I thought I was having a heart attack.” The only reason I didn’t call 911 was because I didn’t realise that in England you dial 999 whereas in America you dial 911. To be honest, I thought I was going to die. It was quite difficult.”
“The first year was simply beyond— I’m not sure how my mother, brother, and I got through it.” It was a complete disaster. “Anyone who has lost a significant relationship in their life will tell you that there is no other way than through,” the Goop founder added. “All you can do is try to digest your loss and keep moving forward.”
“Having him die so early” had one “benefit,” she noted, in that she “had so much life left to build.”
“I hadn’t been married for a long time.” I hadn’t yet started a family. I hadn’t yet figured out who I was yet. Gwyneth added, “I still had the possibility to, I don’t know— I had all these chapters remaining.” “What’s so terrible is that he’s no longer a part of them, but he was such an incredible part of the foundation.”
Gwyneth Paltrow has already stated how much her father has inspired her throughout her life. The Politician actress — whose mother is actress Blythe Danner — even married her husband Brad Falchuck near the spot where her father’s ashes are interred.
For years, around my birthday, I would plunge into the greatest sadness of my life, and then I realised, ‘I’ve got to reframe this somehow.’ “This is not something my father would want for me,” she remarked on the Armchair Experts podcast in March 2019.
The mother of two also chose her children names that commemorate her parents – she has two children with ex Chris Martin: Apple Blythe Alison, 17, and Moses Bruce Anthony, 16.
Gwyneth stated she still has a “hard time” with the death of her father, who directed her in his final film, 2000’s Duets, on the Armchair Experts. “I’m still struggling with it,” she admitted at the time. “He was such a deliberate father, and he was so watchful and emotionally supportive, and he always set us up to win.”
