Gwyneth Paltrow has an important message to her 21-year-old self, as she reflected on her life ahead of her 50th birthday next week.
The Goop founder wrote about reaching the milestone in a lengthy blog post on her famous wellness platform before her birthday on 27 September.
She celebrated getting older and reminisced about the past and revealed some of her regrets and mistakes.
“I have let people down by not being who they needed me to be. I have betrayed myself to keep the peace,” Paltrow wrote. “I have crossed lines, the thoughts of which sometimes rip me from sleep and suspend me into the hollowness of shame for a long dark night.
“Most regretfully, and so often, I have not spoken my truth to spare some perceived consequence, that hurting someone will tear us both apart.”
In her blog, Paltrow reflected on “saying the words that could have spared seasons of heartache and repercussions” in relation to her career and relationships.
“No. This does not feel right to me. Your expectations are no appropriate. Your behaviour is not appropriate. This relationship is no longer right for me. This project is not right for me. You are no longer right for me,” she wrote.
To her younger self, Paltrow said she would advise her to “know my boundary and hold on to it more tightly than my life itself”.
Elsewhere in her post, the Iron Man star said she had come to accept her ageing body, which she described as “a collection of marks and irregularities that dog-ear the chapters”.
“While I do what I can to strive for good health and longevity, to stave off weakening muscles and receding bone, I have a mantra I insert into those reckless thoughts that try to derail me: I accept.
“I accept the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles. I accept my body and let go of the need to be perfect, look perfect, defy gravity, defy logic, defy humanity. I accept my humanity,” she added.
Earlier this month, Paltrow applauded women who haven’t had any cosmetic surgery done to hide signs of ageing.
In another blog post for Goop, she said: “I love when you see women who have not touched their face at all, who are embracing every inch of their ageing.”
She also celebrated those who choose to undergo treatments to look youthful, adding: “People looking the way they’d like to look, feeling their best – that inspires me.”
