Gwyneth Paltrow celebrates 50th birthday with nude photoshoot covered in gold paint

The lifestyle guru recently wrote a message to her younger self ahead of her birthday

Gwyneth Paltrow celebrated turning 50 years old by showing off her birthday suit in a new photoshoot.

The Goop founder, who rang in her birthday on Tuesday (27 September), marked the milestone by posing nude while being covered in gold body paint. Paltrow explained that the nude photoshoot was meant to be fun and about embracing the female gaze.

“All I know is that they’re painting me gold and that I have to be naked,” Paltrow said on the photoshoot set, per PEOPLE. “I feel so good turning 50, and this is about expressing that sense of energy and optimism that I’m experiencing. It’s more about the female gaze and just a sense of fun.”

On Tuesday, Paltrow shared images from the photoshoot to her Instagram with the simple caption, “50,” along with two gold star emojis. In the photo, Paltrow shows off her toned figure as she leans her head down and rests it on her hand.

Friends and fans of the wellness guru took to the comments section to send birthday wishes and praise Paltrow for posing nude.

“Yes mama,” wrote actor Naomi Watts. “Happy birthday QUEEN.”

“Happy birthday,” author Busy Philipps commented, along with a crown and two flame emojis.

“Yes! That is exactly what I looked like when I turned 50!” joked actor and comedian Ali Wentworth. “Happy Birthday you stunning human!”

Ahead of her 50th birthday, Gwyneth Paltrow reflected on her life, reminisced about the past, and revealed some of her regrets in a poignant message which was shared in a Goop blog post.

“I understand on some level that life is linear, that I have lived x number of days thus far and I have more in the basket under my arm than I do in the field before me,” she wrote. “But there is something about the sweetness of life that exists deep within me that is unchanged, that will not change. It is the essence of the essence. It seems to be getting sweeter.”

Paltrow continued: “I have let people down by not being who they needed me to be. I have betrayed myself to keep the peace. I have crossed lines, the thoughts of which sometimes rip me from sleep and suspend me into the hollowness of shame for a long dark night.

“Most regretfully, and so often, I have not spoken my truth to spare some perceived consequence, that hurting someone will tear us both apart.”

Thinking back to her younger self, Paltrow said she would advise her 21-year-old self to “know my boundary and hold on to it more tightly than my life itself.”

The Iron Man star also gave a special shoutout to her two children – Apple, 18, and Moses, 16 – whom she called the “greatest accomplishment of my life”.

Earlier this week, Paltrow opened up about sending her eldest child off to college, which she compared to feeling “as profound as giving birth”, during an interview on CBS Sunday Morning.

“I know this sounds nuts, [but] it feels almost as profound as giving birth,” she said.

Paltrow shares her two children with ex-husband and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The two were married in 2003 before announcing they were “consciously uncoupling” in 2014. In 2018, the Shakespeare in Love actor married writer and producer Brad Falchuk.