Gwyneth Paltrow reveals ‘extra shame’ amid age-gap romance with Brad Pitt in rare comment

Gwyneth Paltrow dated another famous Brad before she married the “love of my life,” Brad Falchuk.

The Iron Man actress, 53, dated Brad Pitt, 62, for three years in the ’90s, even getting engaged in 1996 before they split the following year.

Despite almost 30 years since their relationship ended, Gwyneth still remembers the “extra shame” she felt after they called off their engagement in June 1997.

Gwyneth said she was “so bummed” about their split, but the intense press coverage left her feeling even worse.

Gwyneth’s split from Brad Pitt

“I think the press aspect and all that makes it feel larger than life in a way,” she said on the Friends Keep Secrets podcast on September 8.

‘Love at first sight’

Gwyneth revealed that she had a huge crush on Brad before they met for the first time when she was cast as his on-screen wife in David Fincher‘s 1995 thriller, Se7en.

“I grew up, I remember seeing Thelma & Louise in the movie theater and being like, ‘That is the most handsome man,'” she recalled.

“I get cast in the movie with Brad, and I met him on set,” she continued. “We had kind of a love at first sight thing. It was pretty awesome. It was really fun.”

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Gwyneth admitted that because their connection was so natural, she wasn’t bothered by their nine-year age gap.

“No, because he was so beautiful,” the Sliding Doors star explained. “I think he was 31 and I was 22.” 

During their romance, Gwyneth’s fame as an actress grew, but so did the media attention around her first public relationship, which she called “overwhelming” and a “big thing.”

“I had movies coming out, so I was sort of getting famous on my own, and I was famous as his girlfriend,” she said.

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When asked if their relationship ended because it felt more “like a fantasy than a reality,” Gwyneth replied: “We were working all over the different parts of the world.

“I think there was an aspect of it that was very heady. I was very young, and he was this beautiful movie star.”

While their romance didn’t work out, Gwyneth still thinks Brad is “a great guy,” and he has remained her friend “to this day.”

Thankfully, her husband isn’t threatened by Gwyneth’s stories about her time with her Se7en co-star.

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“No, Brad Falchuk knows he’s the total love of my life,” she gushed. “He is like my best friend. He is the most brilliant, gorgeous – he’s so hot it’s bananas.”

Following her split from Brad Pitt, Gwyneth dated Ben Affleck before meeting Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2002, with whom she shares kids Apple, 22, and Moses, 20.

After she and Chris “consciously uncoupled” in 2014, she married TV show producer Brad in a star-studded private ceremony in 2018.