Gwyneth Paltrow Felt Ex Brad Pitt Was 'Threatened by Her Success,' Book Says

More details about Gwyneth Paltrow’s past relationship with Brad Pitt have been revealed in a new book.

Author Amy Odell‘s upcoming book Gwyneth: The Biography, reveals that Paltrow “cried” to longtime friend and celebrity makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin “multiple times” throughout her relationship with Pitt.

“He wanted to be with her but seemed to feel threatened by her success and all the attention she received,” Odell writes in an excerpt published by People, claiming that Aucoin told Paltrow she needed to “end” the relationship.

“They were one of the most iconic couples of the nineties,” Odell wrote. The author noted that even after their 1996 proposal, Paltrow apparently “expressed doubts” about her relationship to Pitt.

“He was brought up very religious, in Missouri,” Odell wrote of Pitt. “It’s just a very different world from hers, growing up in Manhattan, going to Spence, I think she thought he wasn’t sophisticated enough for her. She thought she was smarter, better educated, more sophisticated.”

Us Weekly has reached out to Paltrow and Pitt’s teams for comment.

Paltrow, now 52, and Pitt, now 61, had a whirlwind romance that lasted for three years, starting in 1994, after they met on the set of David Fincher’s Se7en. Two years into their relationship, Pitt proposed.

“One night we were on the balcony of this house we were renting in this little town in Argentina,” Paltrow recalled of the 1996 engagement during a 2023 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I wish I remembered exactly what he said, but he proposed, it was fantastic, I was thrilled.”

Things between them didn’t last, however. Pitt and Paltrow called off their engagement by 1997. The Goop founder recalled being “totally heartbroken” by the split.

“It was the right thing at that time, but it was really hard,” she recalled during her “Call Her Daddy” interview. “There were a number of things that had happened, he was nine years older than me, so he was far more … he knew what he wanted, he was ready to do it and I was kind of all over the place.”

Paltrow eventually moved on with Ben Affleck after she and Pitt called things off. They were together from 1997 to 2000. Paltrow married Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2003 and they were together until 2016. (The former couple share two kids: Apple, 21, and Moses, 19.) Paltrow married producer Brad Falchuck in September 2018.

Gwyneth: The Biography will be released on July 29.