Gwyneth Paltrow is "proud" to have helped popularise the term "conscious uncoupling".
As part of a Q&A session posted via her Instagram Stories on Friday, the actress/entrepreneur was asked how she felt about being associated with the phrase - which is used to refer to an amicable divorce.
"I definitely did not coin the phrase, but I feel, despite us taking quite a lot of s**t for it when we first announced that all these years ago, I feel very proud that we were able to, maybe, make some divorces a little bit easier, happier," she explained. "It makes me feel pretty proud when people come up to me on the streets and say, 'Thank you for introducing that concept because I've become good friends with my ex.' I'm very happy that we were able to play a small part in that cultural shift."
Back in 2014, Gwyneth announced that she and her husband Chris Martin had separated after 10 years of marriage, and in a statement on her Goop lifestyle website, famously described the process as a "conscious uncoupling".
The term was introduced by Katherine Woodward Thomas in 2009 as part of a programme in which she offered a "calmer alternative" to divorce.
In a 2020 essay for British Vogue magazine, Gwyneth noted she was surprised by the amount of attention the term generated.
"I was already pretty tattered from what had been a tough year. Frankly, the intensity of the response saw me bury my head in the sand deeper than I ever had in my very public life," the 50-year-old wrote at the time, before defending the concept. "I know my ex-husband was meant to be the father of my children, and I know my current husband is meant to be the person I grow very old with. Conscious uncoupling lets us recognise those two different loves can coexist and nourish each other."
Gwyneth and the Coldplay frontman, who share two children, finalised their split in 2016.
The Sliding Doors star wed producer Brad Falchuk in 2018.
