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Gwyneth Paltrow sensationally revealed that both she and her daughter Apple “almost died” while she was giving birth almost 18 years ago. The 49-year-old Goop founder revealed everything about the traumatic 70-hour labor on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, telling listeners that she had to have an emergency caesarean when delivering her daughter, now 17 years old. Gwyneth is also mom to 15-year-old son, Moses, both of whom she shares with 44-year-old ex-hushand, Chris Martin.
“I had two caesareans. My daughter was an emergency,” the Oscar-winner revealed in the podcast. “It was crazy. We almost died. It was, like, not good.” This isn’t the first time the Shakespeare in Love actress has spoken about Apple’s birth, although it is the first time she mentioned that they both almost died. Back in 2006, the now semi-retired actress 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 labor was nothing.”
On the Armchair Expert podcast, Paltrow got onto the subject of body image, and then went into detail about the scars the caesareans left her with. (She also had a caesarean when giving birth to her son, Moses.) She then told listeners that she is eternally grateful that she didn’t begin her journey into motherhood in the age of social media, due to the immense pressure that is put on new moms to bounce back to their pre-pregnancy shapes in record (and almost definitely unrealistic) time.
"Anyway, there's a big scar across your body, and you're like, 'Oh, wow, that didn't use to be there,'" the Shallow Hal actress continued. "And it's not that it's bad, or you want to judge it, but you're just like, 'Oh, my God.'" On the pressures of social media in this present day, Gwyneth said: "Thank God there wasn't Instagram when I had babies because 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 did!' And like great, more power to the lady with the washboard abs but that is totally the exception and then now we're being fed all of these other images of what we're supposed to look like all the time — babies, no babies, whatever."
The Iron Man star didn’t end things there, and went on to say that she wishes women would support each other when they give birth, to share experiences, but definitely to not pass judgement. "I think women really need to be friends with each other and all the judgment around how you have a baby, do you breastfeed, do you not, this that, are you going to work, are you not going to work. Guess what, whatever it is, it's OK," she continued. "I feel like we also have this weird thing around, it's past perfectionism, it's like I can do this gargantuan task that's superhuman and why? For what?"
So well said! We're so thankful to Gwyneth for opening up and telling us this story that we had no idea about! And it goes without saying, but we’re so glad that both she and her daughter are OK after that traumatic experience!
