Gwyneth Paltrow is no prude — that much is obvious from the title of her new Netflix series Sex, Love & Goop — but the advice she gives her teenage children is surprisingly pragmatic.
On Monday, the Avengers: Endgame actress spoke exclusively to Entertainment Tonight ahead of the Oct. 21 premiere, which follows real-life couples as they explore their sexuality. And while Paltrow’s mission was ambitious on the racy set, she scales back at home with her 17-year-old daughter Apple and 15-year-old son Moses, whom she shares with ex-husband Chris Martin.
“…Teenagers are never going to want to talk to their parents about sex, ever, so I sort of follow their lead and luckily, in middle school they had a very thorough sex education, so the school handled the kind of birds and the bees parts, and then I’m there for any questions, but the questions are pretty minimal,” Paltrow told ET. “I think they go to their friends more.”
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“I try always to be neutral on the topic,” she added. “I think my generation, we got a lot of messages around sex that made us feel bad about it.” Clearly that idea isn’t being shared in Paltrow’s home — this week, she told E! that Moses isn’t bothered by Goop’s racy offerings. “My son actually said to me the other day — he’s like a really sensitive, amazing kid—and he said, ‘You know, first I was really embarrassed that you sold vibrators on goop,'” she said. “‘But now I see that it’s actually great because you’re giving permission to people who think it’s embarrassing for it not to be embarrassing.”
Previously, Paltrow had alluded to her mother, the actress Blythe Danner, being surprised by the vibrators sold on Goop. In April, when asked by Today whether the “proper” matriarch was shook by the products, Paltrow had a cheeky answer: “Always” adding, “Even proper ladies have sexuality too.”
During her ET interview, Paltrow shared her personal advice for broaching “The Talk” with kids: “I will always just encourage my children to really listen to themselves, listen to their instincts, listen to if something you know feels right, and to act from that place.”
We love Paltrow’s chill approach, considering the research showing that teens are less comfortable than their parents about discussing sex. But sexual discussion isn’t something to side-step — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teens believe their parents have “the greatest influence” over their sexual decisions, even overshadowing their friends or siblings.
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