Actor turned wellness guru, Gwyneth Paltrow, has opened up about her birth experience with her now 17-year-old daughter, Apple, who she shares with ex-husband and Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin.
Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast, the 49-year-old took a deep-dive into her labour, which she revealed lasted 70-hours. “My daughter was an emergency [caesarean],” she said, “It was crazy. We almost died. It was not good.” Although she didn’t give away too many details about what lead to the emergency caesarean, she did brand the birth “traumatic.”
Two years after her daughter’s birth, in 2006, Gwyneth told ABC News: “We started having some trouble and they had to do an intervention. It was a traumatic experience. I won’t lie. But it was worth every minute. It’s amazing. I came out of it thinking, ‘Well, I would have amputated my legs for her.’ So that [labour] was nothing.”
The GOOP founder continued: “It’s amazing because it was a whole new feeling that I had never experienced. The best way I can describe it is the most madly in love you have ever been mixed with the most painful heartbreak of all time.”
“I just couldn’t stop crying, every time I looked at her,” she added, “I’m sure some of it was hormones as well.”
Apple’s birth came up in conversation on the Armchair Expert episode as Gwyneth and the podcast’s host explored body image. The Iron Man star revealed that as a result of the c-section, she has a “big scar” that took some getting used to.
“You’re like, ‘Oh wow, that didn’t used to be there’,” she said of the scar, “It’s not that it’s bad or you want to judge it but you’re just like, ‘Oh my god’.”
Gwyneth also pointed out how dealing with body image post-birth has changed over recent years, particularly with the rise of social media. “Thank God there wasn’t Instagram when I had babies,” she said, “Now it’s like if I see someone, ‘Oh I just gave birth two weeks ago and I have a completely washboard stomach,’ and I’m like, ‘Wow that’s not what I [looked like]’.”
As well as her daughter Apple, Gwyneth has a son, Moses, who she also gave birth to via caesarean section in 2006.
