Gwyneth Paltrow recalled her parents’ interfaith marriage being “scandalous” when she was just a child.
“I grew up in a time in the ’70s where I think it’s still, like interfaith marriage was still kind of a big deal,” the Goop founder told Israeli activist and actress Noa Tishby as they celebrated the first night of Hanukkah.
“And so it was really hard for both of my parents’ parents that they were marrying each other, and it was a bit scandalous … Nobody was happy about it.”
Paltrow’s mother is actress Blythe Danner, who was raised Christian, and the Oscar winner’s father is the late director Bruce Paltrow, who was raised Jewish.
The pair tied the knot in 1969 and were together until Bruce died of oral cancer in 2002.
Gwyneth, 52, was raised to celebrate traditions and holidays from both religions. She said her grandparents “definitely grew to accept” the interfaith marriage in their family.
Reflecting on her mixed background, the “Shallow Hal” star said, “I felt so fortunate because I got to grow up with these two very different worlds and very different faiths.”
However, she noted, “I always felt an incredible pull to my Jewish family. I still do.”
Gwyneth explained that she appreciates “the traditions and the warmth and the unconditional love and the food and the yelling and the family” of her Jewish side.
“I’m so close to everybody on that side of my family. We’re all kind of interwoven and so important to each other, and you know, just show up for each other again and again and again,” she gushed.
The “Shakespeare in Love” star followed in her parents’ footsteps and did not let differing religious views intercede with her marriage to Chris Martin.
While Gwyneth was closely tied to her religious upbringing, the Coldplay frontman, 47, was not connected to his evangelical background. In 2021, he admitted to suffering as a result of his strict religious education.
“I am having such a hard time in my life right now. And part of dealing with that is going back to look at all that stuff,” the “Fix You” rocker noted on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show at the time, per the Daily Mail.
After her split from Martin in 2014, Gwyneth married “Glee” and “American Horror Story” co-creator Brad Falchuk in 2018.
He comes from a Jewish family and the “Great Expectations” star once described him as a “blue-eyed, Jewish, TV writer, with a heart of gold and a great sense of humor.”
