Gwyneth Paltrow Is Being Called an 'Extortionist' for Charging $5,700 for Her Goop Summit

Louisa Ballhaus

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Followers of Goop understand they’re not receiving the thriftiest wellness guidance out there — but the company’s UK wellness summit may have taken things too far. Attendees are criticizing Gwyneth Paltrow for Goop’s $5,700 health summit price and overall offerings. Customers are enraged by the overpriced merchandise and lackluster involvement of Goop founder, Paltrow. However, the actor’s representatives are insisting that the summit was well-received and that concern over pricing is misplaced.

Hosted over the weekend in London, the Goop summit left many attendees feeling unsatisfied, disheartened and frankly, ripped off. Speaking to Page Six, one attendee had this to say: “Gwyneth acts like she’s a health goddess, but actually she’s a pretentious, greedy extortionist. She had a ton of security […] She was unapproachable. She did the minimum — a few fireside chats with Twiggy and Penelope Cruz, then she put on her Birkenstocks and snuck out.”

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The weekend was billed as a health summit and featured various talks from Paltrow herself, as well as a workout with her trainer Tracy Anderson and access to an on-site Goop store. Included in the $5,700 fee to attend was a two-night stay in special Goop suites at the Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel — at the rate of $1,300 a night. Guests later discovered that rates for other Kimpton hotel rooms that weekend were as low as $250 per night.

It’s unclear what exactly guests hoped would be included for such a high sticker price — but clearly, whatever Paltrow offered did not meet their expectations. Most attendees had held the highest possible opinion of Paltrow prior to this summit — and suffered a devastating letdown. “I was a huge fan of Gwyneth,” the summit attendee tells Page Six. “Now I feel like I have lost my faith in God.”

A Goop representative denied claims that attendees were unsatisfied, saying that “the overwhelming response to our London Summit was incredibly positive.” The rep further claims that the actual value of two nights in such a hotel suite was worth $1,600 and that all guests took home a gift bag worth an additional $3,000. “We have not received negative feedback,” the rep tells Page Six. “[It] was more along the lines of, ‘Thanks for an amazing weekend!'”

Paltrow’s trainer, Tracy Anderson, has also stepped in to defend Paltrow — though her comments show she may not grasp the financial concerns of some Goop patrons. For those complaining about the high price of Goop merchandise or events, Anderson had this to say to Page Six: “It’s just options. She’s not telling anyone what to do, or what to wear […] My gyms are $900-a-month. I have been criticized time and time again, but if people really understood the craftsmanship it takes to run custom prescriptions programs at that level — in the real estate I’m in — they would understand that opportunity has a price tag. It’s just the system we live in.”

And for those who don’t have $900 a month to spend on a gym — or $5,700 to spend on a summit, for that matter — Anderson contends that there are more affordable alternates in place. “I also […] make sure I have $9.99 DVDs,” she tells Page Six. “I am creating options, and Goop is also creating options.”

That’s all well and good. But perhaps a near-$6,000 weekend at which attendees are advised on how to “hydrate mindfully” just wasn’t an option worth creating in the first place.

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