Gwyneth Paltrow: I Don’t ‘Give A S**t’ What People Think

Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t bothered by her critics – even more so now that she’s getting older.

“The older I get I realize it doesn’t matter what people who don’t know you think. It doesn’t matter,” the 41-year-old actress said in an interview with the UK’s Red magazine (Gwyneth acted as guest editor for their December issue). “You’re wasting your energy. It’s like, if your partner comes to you — or your best friend — and says, like, ‘Listen, I want to talk about something you did that hurt me, or I think you could improve,’ sit down and listen to what they have to say.

“But some friend of so-and-so’s – it’s like, who gives a s**t?” she added.

The “Iron Man 3” star is especially displeased with women who criticize other women for the way they choose to balance their careers and motherhood.

“It makes me cross. Why can’t we be supportive of other women in whatever incarnation they’re going through?” she told the mag. “It’s like, who’s judging us? Men? Or are we judging ourselves – looking for an external voice that confirms this belief that we are failing in some area of our life?

“I personally think that the work/life balance for a woman should be exactly what she feels is right for her,” she continued. “And nobody else can set her time schedule. And nobody else can tell her how many hours a week she needs to devote to this, that, or the other.”

Gwyneth, who heads up lifestyle brand Goop and is wife to Coldplay’s Chris Martin (and mother to their two children), said she devotes 100 percent of her attention and energy to whatever she happens to be working on at the time.

“That idea of ‘Oh God, if I don’t show up to this concert, all the other mums are going to think I’m terrible.’ Well, so f**king what,” she said. “It’s like, when I’m with my kids, I give them everything I have. And when I’m not, I give whatever I’m doing everything I have. And that’s my work/life balance.”

— Erin O’Sullivan