Gwyneth Paltrow defends ‘nepo baby culture’ and says her kids can pursue acting and music

‘There’s this whole nepo baby culture, and judgement that exists around kids of famous people,’ actor says

Gwyneth Paltrow has defended “nepo baby culture,” as she shared her candid thoughts about children who’ve opted to have the same careers as their parents.

The entrepreneur, 51, spoke candidly about the nepo baby debate – referring to how children with famous parents have gone on to work in Hollywood and gain much success – during an interview with Bustle, published on 18 October.

“Now there’s this whole nepo baby culture, and judgement that exists around kids of famous people,” she began, before opening up about her family’s lie in the spotlight, which includes her two children – Apple, 19, and Moses, 17 – who she shares with ex-husband Chris Martin.

Paltrow – who is also the daughter of actor Blythe Danner and late director Bruce Paltrow – went on to discuss her daughter’s time in college, before noting that she wouldn’t take issue with Apple following in her parents’ footsteps.

“She’s really just a student, and she’s been very... She just wants to be a kid and be at school and learn,” the Iron Man star said. “But there’s nothing wrong with doing or wanting to do what your parents do. Nobody rips on a kid who’s like ‘I want to be a doctor like my dad and granddad.’”

She went on to emphasise that when children grow up with parents who are actors and musicians, they are more likely to become involved with the entertainment industry as well.

“The truth is if you grow up in a house with a lot of artists and people making art and music, that’s what you know, the same way that if you grow up in a house with law, the discussions around the table are about the nuances of whatever particular law the parents practice,” she said. “I think it’s kind of an ugly moniker.”

Paltrow concluded her comments by sending a message to Moses and Apple, as they are on the way to entering their own careers. “I just hope that my children always feel free to pursue exactly what they want to do, irrespective of what anybody’s going to think or say,” she said.

This isn’t the first time that the Goop founder has weighed in on the debate surrounding children with famous parents. During an episode of Hailey Bieber’s Who’s In My Bathroom? YouTube series in July 2022, she shared her belief about how hard nepotism babies have to work when entering Hollywood.

“I mean, look, I think it’s fair because as the child of somebody, you get access that other people don’t have, so the playing field is not level in that way,” Paltrow said. “However, I really do feel that 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.”

She went on to claim that children of celebrities are more likely to be scrutinised by people who believe that they didn’t rightfully earn their success. “People are ready to pull you down and say you don’t belong there and you’re only there because of your dad or your mom or whatever the case may be,” she said.

Paltrow also issued a reminder to children of nepotism, noting that the criticism they face shouldn’t “limit” them from what they hope to achieve in life. “What I definitely believe is that nobody in the world, especially anybody that doesn’t know you, should have a negative impact on your path or the decision that you make,” she added.

In January, when Bieber, who’s the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, was photographed wearing a shirt that read “nepo baby”, Paltrow jokingly responded on Instagram, writing: “I might need a few of these.”

Elsewhere in her interview with Bustle, Paltrow also opened up about raising her children with Martin, who she split from in 2014 after nine years of marriage. The actor – who then married Brad Falchuk in 2018 – said that while her children are “grounded and grateful and funny,” she and Martin “really did not want to have them experience the divorce as a trauma”.

“We knew that it would be hard, of course, but we didn’t want them to ever feel in the middle, or that one of us was slagging off the other one. At that time, I did a very me thing, which was when I knew I wanted to get a divorce, I did this data collection of talking to adults who had been products of a broken home,” she explained.

Paltrow added that in the results of the data collection, every adult said: “I didn’t care that my parents got divorced. That wasn’t it. But the fact that they wouldn’t speak to each other, that they couldn’t both sit at a dinner table for my birthday.”

She specified that when she saw how “hurt and angry” these adults were, it offered her a new perspective on raising her children after the divorce. “I was like, ‘That’s what I’m never going to do.’” she recalled about her and her ex. “And we really didn’t.”