NEED TO KNOW
- Gwyneth Paltrow spoke about her bond with Meghan Markle in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
- The Goop founder chatted about their “text friendship” and if she would ever appear on season 2 of the Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix series, With Love, Meghan
- Paltrow and Meghan, who live in the same California neighborhood, have poked fun at rumors of beef between them in the past
Gwyneth Paltrow has got a friend in Meghan Markle!
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the Mindvalley Manifesting Summit in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 17, the actress, 52, spoke about her friendship with the Duchess of Sussex, 43.
Explaining that she and Meghan have “not yet” spent a lot of time together in person, Paltrow said, “We have a text friendship so far. I’ve been traveling quite a bit.”
Then, referring to rumors that circulated online surrounding beef between herself and Meghan, the Oscar winner said, “I don’t like that, when people try to pit women against each other.”
And when asked about her thoughts on appearing on season 2 of Meghan’s Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, Paltrow admitted: “Sure! Why not? You never know. I don’t bake that well, but I can always try.”
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Back in March, Paltrow told Vanity Fair that she’d âneverâ view Meghan as competition, as she shared her full support for the mother of two’s lifestyle brand, As ever.
âI was raised to see other women as friends, not foes. I think thereâs always more than enough to go around. Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try,” she told the outlet. âAnother woman is never your competition.”
Meghan launched her lifestyle brand alongside her new cooking and gardening series earlier that month. She previously had a lifestyle and cooking blog called The Tig, which launched in 2014 before closing down after Meghan met Prince Harry in 2017.
Paltrow, for her part, founded Goop originally as a home and lifestyle weekly newsletter in 2008, and the brand has since developed into a successful wellness empire worth $250 million, per Forbes.Â
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The Iron Man star and Meghan later addressed the alleged beef between them when Paltrow took part in a Q&A session on her Instagram Stories.
After one fan asked Paltrow, âAre you comprehending the Meghan Markle beef that social media says you two have?â the star responded, “I genuinely do not understand this at all, whatsoever.” As she turned the camera away, Meghan then appeared onscreen, sitting at the same kitchen table, motioning that she was also clueless about the matter.Â
Paltrow, who lives in the same neighborhood as Meghan and Harry, 40, in Montecito, Calif., told PEOPLE on May 17 she thinks the area offers her and Meghan a way to bond.
“I think, in its way, it’s just like a small town. It’s very serene, and I think it’s just a much quieter frequency than a big city,” she said. “I went to UC Santa Barbara for a while, so I’ve always had a dream of having a house here, because it’s just got that very special, calm beauty and lots of nature. It’s really nice.”
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Paltrow â who often discusses her health practices, including her growing wellness empire with Goop â told PEOPLE at the Mindvalley event that she is a big fan of the platform, which describes itself as “the world’s most powerful life transformation platform with a global community of changemakers.”
“I really like the mission of what they’re trying to do, education and connection around the self and self-betterment,” she said. “I think they’re just up to cool things.”
As for how she uses manifestation, a big part of Mindvalley’s program, Paltrow explained, “I actually am a believer. I don’t have a vision board or a practice around it, or anything like that, but I do think that when I hold a belief tightly, it tends to come to fruition.”
“So I do look back, and I definitely have certain things that I think I absolutely manifested in my life,” she continued.
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One specific thing Paltrow belives she has manifested? Her husband, Brad Falchuk.
“I think there are just lots of little things and things around my personal life, and I think the relationship that I have now with my husband, I really feel like I manifested that kind of healthy, very communicative relationship,” she told PEOPLE. “I really wanted that. I wanted to heal my stuff and really have that, so that’s one example there.”
As for what she has manifested on the business side of things, the star added, “I think a really important part of the process is to think about what needs to happen, strategically, what you want to happen, and then [to have] the tools to execute those things, and staying on track. That’s a very important part of the process for me, for sure.”