Brad Pitt had a very eventful 2000s. Pitt constantly had the full gaze of the tabloids as he jumped from engagement to marriage to fatherhood in a span of 8 years, all with different women. Well, Gwyneth Paltrow was reportedly having none of it.
Paltrow is the subject of a newly released biography where all her early career and behind-the-scenes drama will be laid bare for fans. The book reportedly looks at her Oscar-winning role in Shakespeare in Love, her relationship with Ben Affleck, but what has most fans excited is reportedly how it explores the fallout between her and Brad Pitt when the two broke up and he immediately rushed into a marriage with Jennifer Aniston.
Hindsight is obviously 20/20, and now we know that Pitt was probably always going to torpedo both the rebound relationship he had with Aniston and even the subsequent one he had with Jolie — but back then, Paltrow was reportedly enraged by Pitt. Pitt and Paltrow met on the set of David Fincher’s thriller Se7en in 1994 and ended their engagement in 1997. Although the two have never been forthcoming about why they ended their relationship nearly 30 years ago, Paltrow has shown actual reverence and grace towards her former fiancé and even credited him for protecting her from former Hollywood pariah Harvey Weinstein.
The Daily Beast was able to reveal some excerpts from the biography, and apparently, the breakup between the two was a little more fraught than they cared to let on. The first crack in the façade was when Paltrow was interviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000 and asked what she felt about Pitt marrying Aniston — something she reportedly responded to by saying, “Are you really asking me this question?”
Reportedly, the Iron Man star once described Pitt as “dumber than a sack of s**t” who had “terrible taste in women” in the immediate aftermath of the relationship. Reportedly, Paltrow also thought that Pitt was simply not “sophisticated” enough for her. Which, in all honesty, is an understandable reaction for someone who just got out of a tough breakup. People deal with breakups in all types of ways, and rage is a valid way to handle the situation.
Later on in her life, during an interview on Call Her Daddy, Paltrow had a more measured response to her failed engagement to Pitt. Paltrow said, “I had a lot of development to do, looking back in hindsight.” Paltrow believes that she only got to fully understand herself in her 40s. She has never been one to dwell on past relationships in a negative way — after all, she’s the author of the term “conscious uncoupling” and just recently joined in on the fun when her ex-husband Chris Martin exposed a tech CEO having an affair at one of his shows.
Celebrity biographies are a dying form of pop culture, and this seems like it might just sneak them back into public consciousness. After all, while snided on by some, some actually make for a fun read. Gwyneth: The Biography is out now.
