Gwyneth Paltrow may be the World's Most Beautiful Woman, but her personal life isn't picture perfect.
The 40-year-old star stuns on the June cover of Glamour U.K., in which the blond beauty shows off her softer side, discussing her sometimes difficult marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and dealing with heartbreak in her seemingly charmed life.
"I've had a great deal of suffering in my life," the blond beauty confessed, when asked if her life is one to be envied. "I've lost people—my first cousin, my best friend in a car accident. I've had a lot of things happen to me that I don't talk about in the press."
Perhaps, we have more in common with the Goop goddess than we first thought (with the exception of her Tracy Anderson-sculpted abs).
"I've had a lot of really heartbreaking, difficult things," she continued. "But all of those things have strengthened my resolve to make the best of my life."
Those tough times—including a health scare last spring—inspired the star to create her cookbook and transform her diet, "Blood tests revealed several other issues," she explained. "I felt really imbalanced, exhausted, stressed out. And I was told that the best way to heal most problems is to eat better."
But a healthy diet and enviable figure certainly doesn't solve all of life's hardships, a fact which Paltrow knows all too well when it comes to her marriage.
"It's hard being married. You go through great times, you go through terrible times. We're the same as any couple," she says of her 10 year union to the sexy Coldplay singer.
"I asked my dad once, ‘How did you and Mum stay married for 33 years?' And he said, ‘Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.' And I think that's what happens. When two people throw in the towel at the same time, then you break up, but if one person's saying: ‘Come on, we can do this,' you carry on. I've learned more about myself by being married than anything else. I hate to say, ‘We've got it worked out,' because you never know what's going to happen, but we laugh, we're good friends, we like to do the same stuff."
She continued, explaining how she lets Martin live his life the way he wants, dispelling any controlling-wife claims.
"I'm a very grounded, homey person and Chris is a very mad scientist, genius songwriter. So I never say ‘Where are you? You should be home by now.' I never place demands on him because I think he's a really talented man and he's putting something good into the world."
That sense of doing good is exactly what Gwyneth hopes for the pair's two children, Apple, 8, and Moses, 7, as well. "Having children is a huge responsibility in terms of raising people who will contribute to the world," the actress—who calls London her "adopted home" said. "The people I've met who function best in the world are people with good manners, who are curious, who know different places and speak more than one language. So that's what I'm trying to do."
Sounds a lot like your average mom. But as quickly as we're reminded Gywneth truly is grounded, we suddenly remember she does, sometimes, lead a fairy-tale life.
"Stella [McCartney] is my best friend. I see her once or twice a week and we talk all the time. Cameron [Diaz] is an amazing girl. I love her. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are good best-couple friends. They're family-orientated and come over to us a lot. And we've been on vacation together a bunch of times."
Ah, there's the Goop goddess we've always envied.