An egg for your vagina, bee stings for your skin, and an explosive candle.
It seems that Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow couldn't avoid public criticism if she tried.
Gwyneth Paltrow often makes headlines for the controversial health trends she promotes
on her lifestyle website, Goop.
One of the first practices she encouraged that caught the attention of news outlets
was vagina steaming.
In a 2015 post, she claimed,
"You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort
steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release […] that balances female
hormone levels."
While that does sound intriguing, several gynecologists spoke out against it.
Mary Jane Minkin, an OB/GYN and professor, pointed out that the vagina doesn't actually
produce hormones, and there are major risks involved like burning your vagina or giving
yourself an infection.
Fellow OB/GYN Jen Gunter wrote a whole blog post about why it's a bad idea, explaining,
"I am confident when I say that steaming your vagina with wormwood or mugwort will not do
anything to hormones because these plants are not hormones."
Despite the negative feedback from medical experts, Paltrow stood by her claim, telling
The Cut,
"It's been in Korean medicine for thousands of years and there are real healing properties.
If I find benefit to it and it's getting a lot of page views, it's a win-win."
In 2018, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop was fined for suggesting women insert a crystal egg
in their vaginas.
According to the BBC, the lifestyle brand claimed that the eggs, which GOOP sells on
their website for around $60, could balance hormones and regulate menstrual cycles.
However, California's consumer protection office apparently determined those claims
were a bunch of bunk and fined Goop $145,000.
What's more, OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter explained to Live Science that keeping that egg inside
of your vagina would require a constant muscle contraction which could lead to pelvic pain.
She also said that it could impact the PH or bacteria in the vagina, and result in infections
or even toxic shock syndrome.
Goop paid the fine but downplayed the conflict, releasing a statement that read,
"While Goop believes there is an honest disagreement about these claims, the company wanted to
settle this matter quickly and amicably."
At this point, it's pretty clear that Gwyneth Paltrow has backed some unconventional wellness
practices, but few have been as intense as bee venom therapy — and no that's not just
a fancy name.
The "Shallow Hal" actor has actually promoted getting stung by bees on purpose in the name
of skin care.
She revealed to The New York Times,
"It's a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy.
People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring."
Paltrow admitted that the process was painful, but left that detail out when she wrote about
it for Goop, instead claiming the treatment healed an old injury.
While, for all we know, that may be true, doctors still advised against it, and not
just because it hurts.
Dermatologist Gary Goldenberg explained to Health,
"I do not recommend bee stings as anti-inflammatory agents.
Many patients are severely allergic to bee stings and may not know it."
Unfortunately, according to the BBC, a woman in Spain did have a severe allergic reaction
to bee venom therapy and tragically passed away as a result.
While apitherapy is rarely fatal, other people have suffered from the treatment as well.
"300" star Gerard Butler told "Late Night With Seth Meyers" that injecting bee venom
actually sent him to the hospital.
"And they say, 'What, so it's a bee sting?'
I went 'Yeah.'
They go, 'What happened?'
I said, 'Well I injected myself,' and they said 'Oh my god that's terrible.'"
According to Page Six, attendees of the 2019 In Goop Health summit shelled out $5,700 to
spend a weekend doing wellness activities with Paltrow and her Goop crew in London.
However, some of those people reportedly felt that they were ripped off, claiming that the
lackluster event was basically a sales pitch.
Reportedly, one attendee even called Paltrow a "f---ing extortionist."
Some guests also believed that the Goop team overcharged them for the hotel they stayed
at, as they paid more than the going rates for lodging for the conference.
Others felt that Paltrow wasn't as available as they thought she would be, with one attendee
dishing,
"She did the minimum — a few fireside chats with Twiggy and Penelope Cruz, then she put
on her Birkenstocks and snuck out."
Paltrow is no stranger to getting backlash for her company's behavior.
She once told Harper's Bazaar,
"There were a couple of times when I thought, 'I'm just gonna stop doing it.
People are so mean to me.'"
After Gwyneth Paltrow came down with COVID-19, she opened up about the holistic treatments
she used to try to counteract the long term effects of the virus.
In a 2021 Goop post, she wrote that she was regularly fasting, using an infrared sauna,
and taking a multitude of supplements.
After publishing the post with affiliate links to the products she mentioned, Paltrow came
under fire for recommending unverified COVID-19 treatments.
The National Medical Director of National Health Services England, Stephen Powis, spoke
out against her advice.
According to the BBC, he said,
"We need to take long Covid seriously and apply serious science.
All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care
around that."
Paltrow defended herself to The Hollywood Reporter, saying,
"We're very much in integrity and we're careful about what we say.
We always feel like we understand why a lot of that [criticism] becomes clickbait for
people."
Gwyneth Paltrow's health advice isn't the only thing that's gotten under critics' skin.
In 2020, Goop started selling a "This Smells Like My Vagina" candle in collaboration with
Heretic Parfum.
Explaining the product's origin, Paltrow recalled on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" that she
was brainstorming with Heretic's founder, Douglas Little, when she smelled something
nice and joked that it reminded her of her own vagina.
Though it started as a joke, she liked the body positive angle and began selling the
candle.
Despite her best intentions, the name earned some eye rolls.
Martha Stewart even took a swipe at Paltrow and the candle on "Watch What Happens Live,"
implying that she was just trying to get attention from the public.
"What does it say about America that they- that the candle is now sold out?"
"I think it's not America - I think it's a lot of guys who are horny."
Other people have alleged that the candle was actually dangerous.
The Sun reports that one buyer claimed that the candle had exploded, resulting in flames.
NBC News reported that another person has similar experience with the product, and sued
Goop because of it.
A representative for the company stated,
"We're confident this claim is frivolous and an attempt to secure an outsized payout from
a press-heavy product."
In 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow got a lot of flack when she and her then-husband Chris Martin
announced their divorce.
Since celebrities split up all the time, it was not their separation that upset people,
but rather the fact that they referred to splitting up as a "conscious uncoupling."
Evidently, some critics felt this statement came across as out of touch and pretentious,
and so the ribbing began
In a 2019 interview on "The Armchair Expert" podcast, Paltrow shared that she had primarily
used that term to help herself process the pain of divorce and keep her family intact.
In the face of all the negative attention the post received, she admitted that decision
backfired in the face of all the negative attention that post received, saying,
"There was this whole other layer of the world turning on us about saying, essentially, 'We
just want to be nice to each other and try to stay a family.'
[…] It was brutal, because I already felt like I had no skin on."
In addition to using the unconventional health products she promotes through Goop, the "Royal
Tenenbaums" actor has also admitted she's dabbled in drug use.
On "The Armchair Expert" podcast, she noted that she doesn't regularly use illicit substances,
but she has taken MDMA.
She described her experience on the drug as "shamanic", and stated,
"I had a lot of trauma come up and I was, like, crying.
And I think it was productive."
Paltrow must have really been impacted by that experience, since she seemingly discussed
it again on her Netflix show "The Goop Lab."
"When I took it, I didn't hallucinate, like it wasn't a rave, you know, it was actually
very, very emotional."
The series also explored the potential therapeutic benefits of using psilocybin, also known as
psychedelic mushrooms.
While a number of studies over the last several decades have shown that MDMA and psilocybin
could change psychiatry in a major way, they are still widely illegal in the United States.
Many could argue that Paltrow using her platform to shed light on this development is a good
thing, though others might find that she's encouraging people to experiment with substances
that could get them into legal trouble or cause negative side effects.
On more than one occasion, Gwyneth Paltrow's approach to dieting has made waves.
For example, when she and celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson appeared on "Oprah" in 2008,
she made a controversial comment during their workout demonstration, stating,
"When you're 35, you either starve yourself, or you eat and you do serious cardio."
Understandably, this remark rubbed some the wrong way, as the observation undermined the
very complicated relationships to food and exercise that many people struggle with every
day.
Goop has also offered weight loss tips that have been received quite poorly, with one
now-deleted article about how to quickly lose weight getting a lot of backlash in particular.
In response to the post, a nutritionist told The Independent,
"I am in complete shock that this article has been published as this has the potential
to harm a lot of relationships with food."
Goop later published an article about why people should work toward achieving their,
quote, "leanest livable weight."
According to The Independent, Dr. Giles Yeo of the University of Cambridge pointed out
why this mindset could pose a problem, saying,
"This is a dangerous suggestion, as many people will take it to mean they should be as thin
as possible."
A former high-ranking Goop employee, Elise Loehnen also alleged that while working for
the company, she developed harmful eating habits and a distorted body image.
"I felt like I was not in a healthy relationship with my body, where I was always trying to
punish it, bring it under control."
Gwyneth Paltrow's reputation for being a bit out of touch was on full display during her
2022 appearance on Hailey Bieber's YouTube show, "Who's in my Bathroom."
In the one-on-one chat, Paltrow claimed that in some ways, children of celebrities actually
have to prove themselves more than people who aren't related to the rich and famous.
"Once your foot is in the door, which you unfairly got in, then you have to work almost
twice as hard and be twice as good."
As the daughter of director Bruce Paltrow and actor Blythe Danner, as well as the goddaughter
of Steven Spielberg, Paltrow really seemed to be speaking with a silver spoon in her
mouth in this interview.
Of course, she is also a talented actor, but there's no denying that she started out her
career from a pretty accelerated position considering her parentage.
In 2012, Gwyneth Paltrow messed up big time on social media.
While attending Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Watch The Throne" concert, Paltrow tweeted a photo
of herself on the stage, writing,
"N------ in paris for real."
Understandably, the use of the n-word in reference to the Ye and Jay-Z single sparked controversy.
Yet, instead of apologizing for using the slur, Paltrow tweeted,
"Hold up.
It's the title of the song!"
In an effort to defend the actor, songwriter The-Dream said he actually wrote and posted
the tweet from Paltrow's account.
However, that explanation did not last long, as The-Dream later told MTV News that he did
not write the tweet after all, but was just trying to look out for the Oscar winner.
Like the original tweet, Paltrow's non-apology did not go over well with fans or celebrities.
After the original post and her follow up made the internet rounds, Q-Tip tweeted,
"She may have not meant harm, sure it was in the heat of the moment but the fact that
she showed not 1 IOTA of an apologetic tone, given the historical weight of that word is
not responsible of G Paltrow's part."
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available.
Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at
1-800-931-2237.
You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).