Behind Gwyneth Paltrow’s Dec. 1997 cover for ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ lays a surprising secret, one that is ‘sort of upsetting.’ The actress’ failed engagement with Brad Pitt made her completely lose her appetite!
Instead of turning to tubs of ice cream, Gwyneth Paltrow, 47, turned to air after she and Brad Pitt, 56, ended their engagement in 1997. More than two decades later, Gwyneth made the confession while reacting to her throwback Harper’s Bazaar covers for a YouTube video uploaded on Jan. 10. Coming across the Dec. 1997 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Gwyneth faced a then 25-year-old version of herself: newly single, smiling wide — and noticeably thin. “This one, gosh, I was only about maybe 24? or [25]?” she exclaimed, then added, “Brad Pitt and I had just broken up, and I had breakup, like, could not eat. I was really skinny. It was sort of upsetting.” However, the actress conceded it was “a nice picture.”
Gwyneth has never painted Brad to be a heart-breaker, though. Rather, she was the one who declared, “I f***ed that up, Brad,” in an interview on Girlboss Radio in 2017! There appears to be no leftover bitterness on either end, though, according to what Gwyneth said in her Feb. 2020 cover story for Harper’s Bazaar. “And I’m friendly with Brad Pitt. I don’t have any really bad blood,” the actress revealed, referring to all her exes (even ex-husband Chris Martin, 42, whom she recently went skiing with in Aspen along with their kids and Chris’ girlfriend, Dakota Johnson, over the holidays).
Rather, the timing just wasn’t right for Gwyneth and Brad. “I was such a kid. I was 22 when we met,” Gwyneth explained to Howard Stern on his Sirius XM radio show in 2015. She added, “It’s taken me until 40 to get my head out of my ass. You can’t make that decision when you’re 22 years old…I wasn’t ready, and he was too good for me…I didn’t know what I was doing.”
The breakup did hit Gwyneth hard, though, even if it’s what she needed. The split almost made her skip out on her leading role in Shakespeare In Love, which landed her an Oscar for “Best Actress” in 1999! The actress shockingly revealed that at first, she passed on playing Viola De Lesseps because she was “in the middle of a terrible breakup and the idea of going to England being far from home…” Well, she didn’t finish that sentence in her Feb. 2019 interview with Variety, but we can infer she was overwhelmed. Gwyneth couldn’t even bare to look at the movie’s script! “I didn’t even read it. I was just like, ‘I can’t read anything right now. I’m having a really hard time,’” she recalled.
Gwyneth and Brad met while filming Se7en, which came out in theaters in 1995. Brad popped the question in 1996. Now, Gwyneth is happily married to American Horror Story co-creator Brad Falchuk, 48, whom she tied the knot with in Sept. 2018.