When it comes to maintaining relationships that could very easily be awkward, Gwyneth Paltrow is a master class.
After all, she brought "conscious uncoupling" to public consciousness nearly six years ago when she and ex-husband Chris Martin announced their separation after a decade of marriage. The two have continued to redefine how exes with children can co-exist, having vacationed together post-split and honeymooned together with Paltrow's new husband, Brad Falchuk. The Goop founder has also fostered a friendship with Martin's new partner.
"Happy 30th birthday to this absolute gem," Paltrow wrote last October to Martin's famous girlfriend, Dakota Johnson, who has also spent a holiday and double dated on the beach with her beau, his ex-wife and Falchuk.
"I love her," Paltrow said of the fellow actress in the February issue of Harper's Bazaar. "I can see how it would seem weird because it's sort of unconventional. But I think, in this case, just having passed through it iteratively, I just adore her. I always start to think of the ampersand sign—what else can you bring in, instead of being resistant to or being made insecure by? There's so much juice in leaning in to something like that."
Of her continuous relationship with the Coldplay frontman, Paltrow told the magazine, "It's not like there's a finish line: 'Oh, we consciously uncoupled; we're done.' It's a lifelong commitment to constantly reinvent your relationship with your ex, which you do presumably because you have children together. I don't see a reason to do it if you don't have children together. Some people do."
"But I think we put all the hard work in at the beginning," the star said. "I would say very rarely is it difficult now. We've learned how to communicate with each other. We love each other. We laugh. We have the best of each other. It's really nice. It makes you feel like you don't have to lose."
It sounds like the actress has a handle on delicate relationships prone to dissolving. "One of [her ex-boyfriends] is still one of my best friends—one from high school, Tony Woods," she told the magazine. "And I'm friendly with Brad Pitt," Paltrow noted of her famous '90s beau. "I don't have any really bad blood."
The February 2020 issue of Harper's Bazaar hits newsstands on Jan. 21.