How Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin Make Co-Parenting Work

It’s been five years since Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martinbroke up and made headlines for “conscious uncoupling.” On Tuesday’s episode of Today, the actress opened up about co-parenting with the Coldplay singer and how they make their modern family work.

“We really made the commitment to maintaining the family—even though we weren’t going to be a couple,” Paltrow told Today’s Savannah Guthrie. “And so we sort of thought through that: How would that work and how would that be? Both Chris and I have made a commitment to continue to love the things about each other that we’ve always loved and to really continue to develop our friendship and to find ways to continue to communicate.” 

However, the Goop head admitted it’s been a “long process.”

“You really have to focus on forgiveness and, you know, spite that comes up—you have to let it go….It’s definitely not effortless,” she explained. “But now, at this point five years later, it’s pretty good. But the first couple of years, it was very effortful. And for the sake of the children, we were really committed to maintaining the family structure, even though it looks a little bit different.” 

Even though Paltrow and Martin initially received some criticism for their newly coined phrase, she said it’s nice to “see the culture embrace the idea.”

Paltrow and Martin share two children: Moses (12) and Apple (14). The Oscar winner is also stepmom to husband Brad Falchuk‘s children: Isabella and Brody.

The two tied the knot last fall. However, Paltrow wasn’t sure she’d ever wed again after her split from Martin.

“I never thought one way or the other—I really didn’t,” she said. “I guess if you had asked me a couple years ago, I probably would have gone to not getting married again. But sometimes life just surprises you, and it’s been really fun. I’m so happy that I was sort of given this other opportunity.”

Martin has also moved on and is dating Dakota Johnson.

Watch the video to see the interview.

(E! and NBC are both part of NBCUniversal).