Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Brad Falchuk gave fans an inside look at how the coronavirus lockdown has affected their family and led to certain tensions within the home.
In an hour-long video shared to Paltrow’s Goop YouTube channel, she and her husband speak with intimacy teacher Michaela Boehm about dealing with some of the struggles couples and families may have while self-isolating and practicing social distancing.
“We’re lucky that we have a really solid relationship, but we’re also in the house with the kids and it’s pretty close quarters and I think we all feel — especially my teenagers right now — are really feeling very penned in,” explained Paltrow.
“Especially Apple, who’s a very social creature,” she said of her daughter with ex Chris Martin. “We’re really following all of the strict guidelines, so she’s not able to see people that she wants to see. It gets like fractious in moments and there’s definitely tension within the household and then we have the added dynamic of like stepparent and I think there is quite a lot of stress I think that just comes from trying to recalibrate to this new normal and this level of proximity.”
She also spoke about having a hard time finding any privacy, asking, “where do you go as a couple when you’re all in the house and you’ve got dogs and you’re trying to work and work from home?” She added, “What are you supposed to do?”
Boehm said teenagers will be teenagers, but recommended compartmentalizing the house during these times. She stressed the importance of boundaries and creating specific spaces throughout the home for specific topics or situations.
Falchuk also asked a number of questions throughout the Q&A, with one making Paltrow second guess her own behavior during the pandemic.
“If there are people [who] are home with a partner or someone in the house who, it’s very clear one of them is having an extreme reaction to it, how does the other partner help that person get a sense of, that they’re experiencing it in an extreme way?” he asked.
“Am I?” asked Paltrow. “No, you’re great,” he reassured her.
“But I can imagine that there are partners where one person has watched the news every day and is freaking out about everything and is hoarding canned food and is not letting anybody touch and hands are raw from washing them and all these things,” he said. “So I would wonder even in a really well, very communicative relationship that could be very scary because you’re now sort of trapped with somebody who’s really having a having a [hard time].”
Boehm said to just make sure people don’t discount their partner’s “coping strategies” at a time like this, before advising viewers now isn’t the best time to have any big relationship talks.
“In a crisis situation, the first thing is always do no harm, everybody stays as okay as they can,” she told the couple. “I would suggest if at all possible to put any kind of relationship drama, discussions, things that need to be worked on on the back burner and simply focus on the best possible communication and relationship that can be had. Not the time to break up, not the time for really heavy duty conversations, certainly not the time to work on the things that are weakest because that’s just pouring gasoline on the fire. It’s focusing on what works best for two people.”
Watch the full interview above.
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