'Be A Wife': Gwyneth Paltrow's Anti-Feminist Relationship Advice

by UInterviewFebruary 1, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

If you thought Gwyneth Paltrow was just another waify blonde Hollywood actress, think again. She's a mom (to Apple and Moses), an amateur chef, a blogger (check out GOOP), and a wife — to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. But there's one thing she definitely is not: a feminist.

Not that Paltrow has anything against women's rights. She's just self-aware when it comes to the kind of advice she has for women trying to make their marriage work. The Contagion actress recently had to shell out some frankly traditional guidance to one of her gal pals. "She is an actress and in a new relationship with someone else with a big career, and I said this may not be feminist, but you have to compromise," she told Harper's Bazaar. "It's been all about you and you're a big deal. And if you want what you're saying you want — a family — you have to be a wife, and that is part of the equation. Gloria Steinem may string me up by my toes, but all I can do is my best, and I can do only what works for me and my family."

In this day and age full of heartbreaking (and some not-so-surpising) celebrity splits, Paltrow's approach seems to be working. She says she's had some positive role models to show her the way. "My parents were married for 30-something years, and he said [it was] because they never wanted to get divorced at the same time," she said, referring to her late dad Bruce Paltrow and mom Blythe Danner.

Paltrow said people expecting everything to be easy should wise up. "I think you do fall in and out of love and you just keep going, and every time you go through a really difficult phase, you rediscover something new and it just gets better. We've been married for more than eight years now, and we're still into it."