Gwyneth Paltrow is privately in hell after the end of her marriage to Chris Martin, with speculation the split was due to a string of alleged affairs, or so the gossip magazines say.
Last week’s announcement of the high-profile split had the mags scrambling to explain why the couple, who have two children, are going their separate ways.
“She [Paltrow] desperately wants the world to think that she’s totally zen about all this, but the truth is Gwyneth is an emotional wreck right now,” Woman’s Day quoted a friend saying.
“She feels incredibly guilty about the children and how this is going to affect them, and she feels really let down by Chris.”
Sources said actress Paltrow, 41, had spent hours on the phone sobbing to family and friends about how tense things were and how painful it was being together for the sake of the children.
But a source also said Martin, the 37-year-old Coldplay frontman, hated Paltrow’s efforts to turn him into someone more like her, with her preference for a strict macrobiotic diet.
“He wasn’t this non-smoking vegan yogi, but she tried very hard to transform him into what she wanted him to be,” the source said.
“She was extremely controlling, but he rebelled, especially around what he thought were absurd diet and exercise restrictions, and began staying later and later in the studio and on the road.”
New Idea said that despite a statement from Paltrow and Martin late last week that the split was an amicable “conscious uncoupling”, speculation was growing that it had more to do with allegations of affairs.
Paltrow had vehemently denied being involved with the parade of men she had been linked to in the gossip columns.
For Martin the most painful of those reports had been of Paltrow’s close friendship with Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and a reported fixation with Spain’s Crown Prince Felipe.
“Gwyneth was besotted with the idea of being the next Grace of Monaco,” a member of her inner circle said.
Others hit hard by the stress of divorce include Russell Crowe.
The almost 50-year-old New Zealand-born actor told how he had a mental and physical breakdown after being submerged in water in near-freezing temperatures during filming in Iceland for the movie Noah, New Idea reported.
“I was lying on these stones and I couldn’t get up,” Crowe had told British magazine Event.
“I couldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t stop crying. Seven or eight people put blankets on me and sat on me until I stopped.”
Crowe admitted he was in a “dark” place having just split from wife of nine years Danielle Spencer.
“This happened just a few weeks after Danielle told me that she didn’t want to be married anymore and insisted that we sit in front of our children and tell them.”
Crowe and Spencer, who have two sons, announced their split in October 2012.
Then there’s the distress of the partner who was left behind, when the other partner gets some good news.
Demi Moore, 51, apparently became distraught and hysterical when she learned ex-husband Ashton Kutcher and 30-year-old fiancee Mila Kunis, were expecting a baby.
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A source close to Moore revealed the actress was so distressed she planned to flee to her favourite yoga retreat in Mexico, and was in meetings with Kabbalah chiefs to ensure she did not go back on the drugs that reportedly landed her in hospital in 2012, Woman’s Day said.
“Ashton called and told her, and she’s had a team of people with her around the clock since,” an insider said.
Moore and Kutcher, 36, had talked nonstop about having a baby and tried for at least two years before doctors said it was impossible.
“That always haunted Demi – she thought Ashton left her because he wanted a baby and she couldn’t have one,” the insider said.
The baby news has also had an impact on Kunis’ ex-boyfriend Macauley Culkin, 33, who pushed forward the date of his wedding to actress Jordan Lane Price – who looks strikingly similar to Kunis – so he could beat his former flame down the aisle.
Even smooth old George Clooney, Hollywood’s 52-year-old perpetual bachelor, has been affected by news an ex-girlfriend is pregnant.
Clooney dated former pro-wrestler Stacy Keibler for two years before they parted eight months ago.
A fortnight ago Keibler married old friend, businessman Jared Pobre, and last week she announced she was pregnant.
“He may act all tough but there’s zero doubt that George is hurt by how quickly Stacy moved on,” New Idea reported a friend saying.
“This was a serious love affair and his ego must be crushed that she’s run off and got pregnant right away with the first guy she dated.”
The pregnancy had Clooney re-evaluating his priorities, particularly the future of his relationship to London-based barrister Amal Alamuddin, 36.
“He’s been telling pals he’s found the perfect woman – someone that he can see himself settling down with,” an insider said.
“His folks would love another grandkid – his sister has two kids. They want to see him settled down and starting a family.”
And how about those Kardashians . . .
Rumour had it a sex tape was in circulation starring 58-year-old matriarch Kris and a mystery man, New Idea reported.
An insider noted: “Even if she didn’t intend for it to be made public, the moment it got out there you can guarantee Kris would want a big share of the money.”
Closer to home, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly reports on former Miss Universe Lorraine Downes’ decision to remove her long locks.
Downes, 49, who runs an image consultancy business, took about a year to decide to have the cut.
“I did have to think hard about it,” she said.
“I was getting rid of what has been a big part of my image for many years.
“But I felt strongly that I had got to the stage where it was the right time in my life to make such a big change.”
That was not because she thought women should avoid having long hair beyond a certain age.
“For me, it was more because I feel like I’m starting a new phase of my life, and not just because of my age,” she said.
That change includes the departure of the younger of the two children she had with former husband ex-All Black Murray Mexted. Jasmine, 16, a talented dancer, has taken up a scholarship at a performing arts school in Melbourne.
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