Gwyneth Paltrow ran a workplace that was allegedly “chaotic and sometimes toxic,” resulting in mass resignations in recent years, a new book has claimed.
The Oscar-winning actor’s Goop healthcare and wellness brand has reportedly suffered from an inability to be sustainably profitable, with executives struggling to navigate Paltrow’s “impatience and perfectionism.”
The claims come as part of a new biography by Amy Odell, who also penned the 2021 biography Anna, about the life of Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.
In Gwyneth, which was released Tuesday, Odell describes how those that worked at Goop “seemed cagier than many of Wintour’s former employees,” noting that “many had signed NDAs.”
“The company she founded in 2008 hasn’t experienced sustained profitability, has allegedly suffered from a chaotic and sometimes toxic office culture, and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth’s ideas to the next,” Odell writes, in an excerpt from the book.
“As the main narrator of her own public story, Gwyneth has masterfully shaped our perception of her. She knows all her best angles.”
The star of Shakespeare in Love , Sliding Doors and The Talented Mr Ripley – who took a break from Hollywood in 2027 to launch her brand – is also portrayed as somewhat ignorant of the machinations of a business and was described as “erratic” and “childish” in the way she dealt with employees, according to the book.
Within the past two years, Odell states, Goop lost at least 140 employees, including its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, chief revenue officer, general counsel and chief content officer
“Many were terrified to talk about Gwyneth,” Odell writes. “Some people I interviewed had seen her take action against people she felt had crossed her.
“Gwyneth has had a habit throughout her life of bringing people close to her, then cooling on them. Some simply move on, while others become dismayed and desperate to get back into her inner circle.”
The Independent has reached out to Paltrow and Goop about the claims made in Gwyneth via the company.
According to further excerpts of Gwyneth, seen by The Times, the actress was reportedly childish, or even outright rude, to other high-profile individuals she had in her life. After breaking up with Brad Pitt in 1997, she reportedly told an interviewer that she had to explain the difference between separate types of caviar, and described him as being “dumber than a sack of shit.”
The Times reports that, per the book, Paltrow also gossiped about another former fling, Ben Affleck, as well as distancing herself from long-time friend Madonna because her ex-husband Chris Martin had reportedly taken a dislike to her.
Paltrow recently harked back to the time when she and Martin were together, prior to their “conscious uncoupling” in 2014, after appearing in a commercial for software company Astronomer. It came after Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught being intimate with his head of HR Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert – and was called out by frontman Martin live at the show.
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