Gwyneth Paltrow Says Turning 50 Was 'Liberation': 'I Used to Care So Much What People Thought of Me'

Courtesy Kyle Espeleta Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has been 50 for less than a month, but she's already loving this new decade.

"It's fantastic," the CEO said at the goop Immersive event in Santa Monica on Sunday. "I feel really inspired by turning 50. I used to care so much what people thought of me. [Now] I don't care. It's so nice. What I think it really means to not be caught up in what other people think is it means that you're close to yourself."

During the panel at the event, celebrating the modern wellness brand and featuring pop-up stations by Vie Healing, goop Beauty, makeup artist Jillian Dempsey and Hydration Room, Paltrow recalled that the transition into her 40s wasn't quite as smooth.

"When I was turning 40 I was a wreck," said the mom to Apple, 18, and Moses, 16, with ex-husband Chris Martin. "I was really having a bit of a mid-life crisis around it. I also acknowledge I was in the midst of a big transition. I knew I wanted to leave a marriage [she split from Martin in 2016] and I knew I wanted to move back to the United States, so there was a whole lot going on with me."

RELATED: Gwyneth Paltrow Says She 'Hurt People,' Apologizes as She Reflects on Turning 50: 'I Am Imperfect'

Courtesy Kyle Espeleta Gwyneth Paltrow

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Continued Paltrow: "I think that transition is particularly hard for a woman because of what society tells us about turning 40 and that in some way when we lose reproductive viability that we're no longer desirable or important or visible. But I really didn't have any [anxiety] turning 50. I felt like this amazing liberation started to come."

The goop founder, who has been married to producer Brad Falchuk since 2018, also reflected on the beauty of a second marriage.

RELATED VIDEO: Gwyneth Paltrow Celebrates Turning 50 with Bikini Pic: I 'Let Go of the Need to Be Perfect'

"I was lucky enough to meet Brad at a time when our values really lined up; what we wanted really lined up and our interests really lined up and we work really hard to maintain it," Paltrow said. "I was not able to make my first marriage work, and I took it as a huge failure. And it's still hard. I have disappointed kids and it's never going to be the same as if I stayed together with their dad. [But] knowing how painful it was to get a divorce the first time, I'm vigilant about staying aligned and not letting resentments build up."

When it comes to a potential return to acting, the Oscar winner isn't as definitive.

"Do I have any plans to go back into acting? Not really," said Paltrow, whose last starring role was in the 2020 series The Politician. "I don't long for it, I don't miss it. But things can rekindle at different times in your life. I've lived long enough to know that you can never make assumptions about who you're going to be. So never say never!"