Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have announced that, after more than 10 years of marriage, they are separating. In a statement, released on Paltrow's website Goop – which later crashed due to the volume of traffic it received – the couple said in a joint statement that they were to "consciously uncouple".
They stress, in the statement, that while "in many ways we are closer than we have ever been", they have come to the conclusion that "while we love each other very much we will remain separate".
It all sounds very amiable. So what is conscious uncoupling?
Psychotherapist and author Katherine Woodward Thomas specialises in "the art of completion" and describes it as "a proven process for lovingly completing a relationship that will leave you feeling whole and healed and at peace". You can watch her talk about it here. For 50 minutes.
Arguing that Hollywood and advice from friends and family have taught us that separations should be painful, destructive experiences, she instead claims that breakups should be seen as an opportunity to turn the emotional pain of a breakup into "a catalyst for making a breakthrough in the way you show up in your life … and in your next relationship".
You can even do a five-week online programme billed as a way to "heal your heart, rediscover your joy and transform your life, how to turn breakup grief into personal breakthrough".
It all sounds very free-spirited, but it is harder to think of any couple more suited to this new age than Chris and Gwyneth. With Coldplay's sixth album, Ghost Stories, due this May, the next question is what will a Coldplay breakup album sound like?
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