When Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt began their romance in 1995, they were the Golden Couple
of that era, the couple too effortlessly beautiful to fail.
And yet, while their romance was a blazing storm, it was snuffed out so suddenly.
They seemed like a match made in Hollywood heaven, but sadly it was all too good to be
true.
While we saw loving gazes, what happened behind the scenes was so unhealthy, it made Gwyneth
hate herself.
Gwen and Brad met as any fated Hollywood couple does on a movie set.
They starred as an on-screen couple in the relentlessly grim film 'Se7en', where they
played doomed lovers.
But while that film ended with her head in a box and him destined for jail, in real life,
they were destined for something a little less gruesome.
Their chemistry was magnetic, and very soon, they were inseparable.
Gwyneth, who was just twenty-two years old at the time, admitted it was "love at second
sight" with Brad, who was thirty-one.
At first, she didn't realize he was flirting with her and thought he was just being friendly.
Her career was only just taking off, and she was relatively unknown in the movie-making
scene, so she never thought that a Hollywood A-lister would be making moves on her.
But she was wrong.
It wasn't long before everyone on set knew they were an item, and a smitten Gwyneth confirmed
it to the world when she gushed: "I am properly in love for the first time in my life... and
I do not care if my former boyfriends read this."
The couple was obsessed with each other.
They even turned down jobs so that they could spend as much time together as they could.
They were practically joint at the hip.
When the actress was away on set, she drank out of a mug with Brad's face on it.
As for Brad, he called Gwen his 'angel' and described the time away from her as, "A beast.
A big hairy beast."
"Really, all I can tell you is I've never been happier.
My girl's got class."
Pitt confessed.
Paltrow's parents also adored Pitt, and he got along with her whole family.
There were many other celebs who were completely in awe of the young couple's love.
"Her love affair with Brad gives her strength.
It's not because he's a superstar but because he is completely besotted with her," movie
exec Meryl Poster said of Brad and Gwen.
It seemed like they were so crazy in love like there was enough love between them for
everyone in the room.
So when the right time came, Pitt asked her father for his blessing to propose to Gwen.
It's no surprise that he got the nod of approval, and in 1997, Brad proposed after two years
of dating.
He described the moment as "one of the greatest" of his life.
Their appearance at the 1997 premiere of The Devil's Own remains an iconic moment in their
history, thanks to their matching haircuts.
Gwen even admitted that it was all on purpose because they had gone to the same hairstylist
and asked for the same haircut.
If that isn't the epitome of cute, we don't know what is!
When Brad won his Golden Globe for his performance in the film '12 Monkeys', he thanked "the
love of my life, my angel, Gwyneth Paltrow" in his acceptance speech, and the rest of
the world swooned.
They continued to steal the hearts of fans, strolling down the streets of New York, hand-in-hand
and looking lovingly at one another.
"I take the institution extremely seriously," Gwyneth said of marriage at the time, clearly
giddy about their upcoming nuptials.
"There are no divorces in my family either – and in his either, so this is not something
– we've been together for quite some time, so this is not a rash decision."
The two were so smitten they even prioritized time together over their film schedules.
They made sure that they weren't making movies at the same time so that they would both have
breaks in between filming to make time for their relationship.
"It's too difficult to be separated, it really is."
Gwen explained.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Brad's proposal was the downfall of their relationship.
It wasn't much later that their blissful romance suddenly began to unravel.
The pressure of getting married felt like too much for Gwen.
She was only twenty-five years old after all, and she began to feel like she was too young
to settle down.
"I think I was a kid and I wasn't ready.
He was too good for me I honestly do think, I was too young and didn't know what I was
doing."
The actress confessed.
"I'm so lucky that I spent time with Brad, somebody who was such a good person!"
she said, as reported by ABC News.
"Especially when I was, like, such a mess…
My kind of internal stuff really tripped up that whole relationship.
And I felt really responsible, and also like I was the architect of my own misery.
… I just made a big mess out of it…
I was very upset for a long, long time."
The Contagion actress discussed her former beau years later on Howard Stern's Sirius
XM show, with nothing but praise for Pitt.
"I definitely fell in love with him," she recalled of Pitt in 2015, according to Us
Weekly.
"He was so gorgeous and sweet.
I mean, he was Brad Pitt!"
She felt like she was too young to make the big decision of becoming someone's wife and
later admitted that it wasn't until she was in her forties that she got, quote, "my head
out of my ass."
Gwen also explained that their relationship 'wasn't healthy,' adding that certain things
happened between the two of them that made her 'hate' herself.
Rumors had also begun to circulate that Gwen had cheated on Brad with her Sliding Doors
co-star John Hannah.
And while Gwyneth never weighed in on the gossip, she did take the blame for the toxic
split and the 'darkest moment of it.'
"My kind of internal stuff really tripped up that whole relationship and I felt really
responsible and also like I was the architect of my own misery and I just made a big mess
out of it," she admitted.
Brad's long-time friend Jean Black claimed Gwen's behavior had also raised a lot of red
flags.
"I think there were a lot of things that made Brad feel as if Gwyneth wasn't ready for marriage,"
she shared.
Following the couple's split, Gwen was so distraught that she refused to work and almost
missed out on her Oscar-winning role in Shakespeare In Love.
She shared in an interview, "It really changed my life.
When we split up, something changed permanently in me.
My heart sort of broke that day, and it will never be the same."
She added that because she was still in the middle of the 'terrible' breakup, the idea
of being away from home was too difficult.
At first, she didn't even read the script, explaining, "I was just like, 'I can't read
anything right now.
I'm having a really hard time.'"
Gwen also revealed that she "could not eat.
I was really skinny," after her breakup with Brad.
And she wasn't the only Paltrow that was devastated by their breakup.
The actress admitted that her father was also devastated when they broke up because he had
loved him like his own son.
The following year Brad went on to meet Jennifer Aniston while Gwyneth dated Ben Affleck before
marrying Coldplay's Chris Martin in 2003 and had two children.
Neither of their first marriages didn't work out, and Brad ended up having another failed
marriage with Angelina Jolie.
However, it seems like Gwen finally found happiness with her second husband, Glee producer
Brad Falchuck .
The lovebirds tied the knot in 2018, and the romance was something that took Gwen completely
by surprise.
She didn't think she'd ever get remarried because she had her kids and didn't think
she needed anything more than that.
"And then I met this incredible man, who made me think, no, this person is worth making
this commitment to.
I'm very much the marrying kind."
She gushed about her new husband.
The couple also had quite the unconventional living arrangement, only moving in together
a year into their marriage.
But it seemed like Gwen had a good reason for it.
She wanted to give her kids and Falchuck's kids time to get used to all the change and
integrate their family over time.
But the actress wasted no time to gush over her new hubby and how happy he makes her.
"I adore my husband.
He's brilliant and deeply kind.
I feel like he's a real equal too.
And he pushes me in the best ways.
I really like being married.
It's fun."
And of course, like any social media active couple, they've kept all their fans updated
with cute pics and swooning captions.
For his 50th birthday, Gwen celebrated with a candid selfie of the pair.
"Happy 50th birthday @bradfalchuk.
I just want to be with you, always, at least for the next 50."
She captioned.
While Pitt and Paltrow weren't able to make things work out, they definitely made their
mark in Hollywood history as one of the most iconic - and good-looking - to ever grace
the red carpet.
They won our hearts with their boundless love and epic fashion statements, so all we can
do is thank them for the memories.
We're so glad that Gwen was able to find happiness with her true love, and we can only wish the
very same thing for Brad Pitt.