London:
Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow says separation from former husband Chris Martin felt like a 'failure' to her. The 'Mortdecai' star and the Coldplay frontman were married for 13 years and decided to go their separate ways in 2016.
"I'm actually the only one in my life who got divorced. This used to feel like a failure - it took me a while to reframe that divorce isn't a failure.
In the past, I've been in relationships with men who had intimacy issues, so I could be, like, 'I'm fine, I'm ready to do this,' and let myself think he's the one with the problem. In a way, some of the relationships were designed to keep me out of intimacy.
"Now, for the first time, I feel I'm in an adult relationship that is sometimes uncomfortable, because he sort of demands a certain level of intimacy and communication that I haven't been held to before. What came up in the first couple of years of our relationship was how incapable I was in this realm, how I feared intimacy and communication. What typically characterises inspiring relationships?" Paltrow told Style magazine.
The actor shares daughter Apple (13) and son Moses (12) with Martin.
Paltrow, who is now engaged to television writer Brad Falchuk, looks up to lots of couples in her life and is 'inspired' by their long-lasting relationships.
"There are a lot of couples in my life who I look up to. All of my friends from high school who married their boyfriends from college are still solid. Two gay male couples are in long-lasting relationships that are very inspiring to me. The other day I was at a birthday party with one of the couples and they were laughing and high-fiving. They've been married a long time and I thought, that's - they're - amazing," she said.
