Gwyneth Paltrow: ‘I’m Completely Self-Made’ — Despite Famous Showbiz Parents

Actress and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow insists she is a “completely self-made” woman — despite being the daughter of a highly successful actress mother and a major television producer father.

In an interview for this month’s cover of Glamour magazine, the Iron Man star and Goop founder said that her parents Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow never gave her “a dime.”

“People think, ‘She’s just a rich kid.’ Until I was 18, I was,” Paltrow told the magazine. “Then I was broke. I’ve never taken a dime off my parents. I’m completely self-made.”

“I went to UC Santa Barbara, and when I quit to try to be an actress, my dad was like, ‘That’s great, but I’m not gonna help you,'” continued Paltrow. “I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ And he was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ So I got an apartment with a roommate; I worked as a hostess at a restaurant; I would scrounge quarters to buy Starbucks — and walk there to save gas. I remember once asking my dad for money, like, ‘Please, I’m really stuck. Can you help?’ And he said, ‘You’re more than welcome to come over for dinner.’ That was it.”

Paltrow said much the same thing in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar last year, conceding that she “grew up with the benefit of a great education and beautiful house,” but that her father was “hardcore” about not offering her any financial support.

While Bruce Paltrow may have never given his daughter money, he did help her out with her career: as E! Online points out, a teenaged Gwyneth got her first acting role in the 1989 TV movie High, produced by the elder Paltrow. She may have also picked up some tips from her mother Blythe Danner, a veteran actress who has more than 100 screen credits to her name. The younger Paltrow told Harper’s that she began her acting career because she “just wanted to do what [her] mother did.”

In her interview with Glamour, Paltrow also took on critics who have said that her Goop lifestyle brand is unaffordable for everyday women. Products featured in the company’s holiday gift guides routinely cost tens of thousands of dollars, though the actress has previously described herself as “incredibly close to the common woman.”

“Sometimes I’ll get annoyed if someone’s like, ‘Goop is so expensive,'” she told the magazine. “I’m like, ‘Have you looked at the website? Have you seen the range of price points?’ ‘Cause we sell things that are $8. I’m like, ‘If you want to f–k with me, bring your A-game. At least have all your information.'”

“Once in a while, if I’m exhausted and overwhelmed, I’ll be like, ‘Ugh, that bugs me,’ or, ‘That hurts my feelings.’ But very rarely,” she added. “I don’t lose sleep over it. It’s my business to live my life and learn my lessons. I don’t care what anybody else thinks.”

Check out the rest of Paltrow’s Glamour magazine cover interview here.