Gwyneth Paltrow does not shy away from conversations about sex with her children. Ahead of the debut of her Netflix sex reality series Sex, Love & Goop, the actress, 49, shared her approach to navigating the topic with “honesty” and “vulnerability” with her daughter Apple, 17, and son Moses, 15, whom she shares with ex-husband Chris Martin.
“I try always to be neutral on the topic,” the Goop founder told Entertainment Tonight in an October 19 interview. “I think my generation, we got a lot of messages around sex that made us feel bad about it. I try to just be curious, and teenagers are never going to want to talk to their parents about sex, ever.”
She continued, “I sort of follow their lead and luckily, in middle school they had a very thorough sex education, so the school handled the kind of birds and the bees parts. Then I am there for any questions, but the questions are pretty minimal.” Gwyneth does, however, have one piece of advice for her teens: to “listen to their instincts” and “stay really close to your own truth.”
“I think the main thing that nobody ever tells you, is you have to stay really close to your own truth and you have to stay really in integrity with that truth,” she told the outlet. “Because when you are in a relationship and you are not being your full self, you are sublimating things or you are white knuckling through something.”
“I think it can be pretty damaging to how you feel about yourself,” Gwyneth continued. “I will always just encourage my children to really listen to themselves, listen to their instincts, listen if something feels right, and to act from that place.” The topic of instincts, intimacy, and sex will serve as the basis of the actress’ upcoming Netflix series.
Sex, Love & Goop will follow “courageous couples” as they “journey toward more pleasurable sex and deeper intimacy” with the help of Gwyneth and experts, according to the synopsis. The first season debuts on Thursday, Oct. 21. The star will also share details about her sex life with husband Brad Falchuk in the series.
“I also thought it was really important for me to show up with honesty and vulnerability around these topics,” she told ET. “I think that’s the point of the show, to show different examples of what honesty and vulnerability can look like. I was happy to do that and share.”
On Instagram on October 7, Gwyneth called the series a “continuation of Goop’s mission to help our audience pursue the ineffable power of their own potential.” She wrote, “The show is a toolkit for finding more pleasure and connection in our romantic lives. And it’s full of lessons I wish I’d learned years ago.” Watch the trailer above.