Gwyneth Paltrow Views Her Relationship With Ben Affleck As A ‘Lesson’
Actress turned lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow is set to marry boyfriend Brad Falchuk this weekend. Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin from 2003 to 2016, has dated other famous men in the past including Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. Recently, Paltrow spoke out about her relationship with Affleck, which lasted from 1997 to 2000.
According to InStyle, the pair first met at a dinner party hosted by infamous Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The two went on to star in two films together, Bounce and Shakespeare In Love. Their relationship was a turbulent one, and the pair briefly broke up in 1999 before getting back together while filming Bounce.
The pair called it quits in October 2000, and in 2003, Paltrow spoke about her relationship with Affleck. According to Entertainment Weekly, the actress said that though she held him in high esteem, she never expected to spend her life with him. After all, Paltrow had just ended a long relationship with Pitt, and Affleck was a known partier.
“I just think we have a very different sort of value system. Ben makes life tough for himself. He’s got a lot of complication, and you know, he really is a great guy. So I hope he sorts himself out.”
She added that her parents, actress Blythe Danner and the late Bruce Paltrow, were not as enthusiastic about Affleck as they had been about Pitt. In a 2015 interview, Paltrow detailed her parents’ opinions.
“I think [my parents] appreciated how he’s super intelligent and he’s really, really talented and so funny, but he was not in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend. I think they were OK with the two of us not being together.”
#GwynethPaltrow sees her relationship with #BenAffleck as "a lesson." Here's why. https://t.co/TOJyc1kHyr
— InStyle (@InStyle) September 28, 2018
Paltrow, 46, added that despite their on-again-off-again relationship, her time with Affleck was important.
“I think [there are] certain boyfriends where you are trying to work stuff out, right? Like, you’re trying to heal certain stuff from your childhood and he was very much a lesson in that way. I’m not sure exactly what I was trying to heal in that instance, but it was… he was, ya know, it was specific.”
After her split with Affleck, Paltrow met and married Martin, with whom she has two children: 14-year-old Apple, and 12-year-old Moses.
Affleck dated singer Jennifer Lopez until 2003 and went on to marry actress Jennifer Garner. The two split in 2015, but share 12-year-old Violet, 9-year-old Seraphina, and 6-year-old Samuel.
