Gwyneth Paltrow‘s romance with Brad Pitt began before they ever crossed paths.
The Oscar winner shared rare details on her romance with the Mr. & Mrs. Smithstar, divulging that although she dated him in the ‘90s while in her early 20s, her crush on Pitt first formed after watching him onscreen.
“I grew up, I remember seeing Thelma & Louise in the movie theater,” Paltrow told Benny Blanco and Lil Dicky on Friends Keep Secrets Sept. 8, “and being like, ‘That is the most handsome man.'”
Eventually fate would lead Paltrow—who shares kids Apple, 22, and Moses, 20, with ex Chris Martin—to meet her crush in real life, when they played a married couple in David Fincher‘s 1995 thriller, Se7en.
“I get cast in the movie with Brad, and I met him on set,” Paltrow shared. “We had kind of a love at first sight thing. It was pretty awesome. It was really fun.”
As such, the actress never questioned their natural connection despite their difference in years, crediting Pitt’s handsome looks as a part of the equation. “No, because he was so beautiful,” the Sliding Doorsstar explained of why she wasn’t bothered by their age gap. “I think he was 31 and I was 22.”
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And almost 30 years later, Paltrow still recognizes how much the headlines about her first public relationship—which led to their engagement in 1996—impacted her career.
“I had movies coming out, so I was sort of getting famous on my own, and I was famous as his girlfriend,” she said, calling the media attention “overwhelming” and a “big thing.”
Though the 53-year-old maintained fond memories of their time together, she also acknowledged why they ultimately never made it down the aisle.
“We were working all over the different parts of the world,” she continued. “I think there was an aspect of it that was very heady. I was very young, and he was this beautiful movie star.”
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/ for Valentino
And it’s fortunate that Paltrow still considers her ex to be “a great guy” and a friend “to this day,” given that her romance with Pitt, 62, remains a topic of conversation.
“He’s a very intriguing character,” she told Vanity Fair in 2025. “Like having dated, I don’t know, Prince Williamor something. That’s always going to come up.”
As for whether husbandBrad Falchuk ever gets annoyed when Paltrow—who he married in 2018—looks back on her experience with the Hollywood heartthrob?
“No, Brad Falchuk knows he’s the total love of my life,” she gushed. “He is like my best friend. He is the most brilliant, gorgeous—he’s so hot it’s bananas.”
Read on for the full story on how Paltrow and Falchuk fell in love.
