Gwyneth Paltrow Shares the Touching Reason Her Father Took Her to Paris—and How She's Healing Her 'Complicated' Relationship With Italy

Travel + Leisure

a day ago

The City of Lights is one of the world's most beautiful metropolises, with renowned art and architecture, a vibrant café culture, and awe-inspiring landmarks that have delighted visitors for centuries. Everyone lucky enough to visit is bound to make precious memories there, but for Gwyneth Paltrow, the French capital holds an incredibly personal type of magic.
In a recent solo episode of her Goop podcast, Paltrow reflected on the most meaningful destinations she's visited since childhood. 'Travel has been a really integral part of my life,' she shared from a hotel room in Naples, Italy.
When she was 10 years old, Paltrow lived with her family in the U.K. while her mother, actress Blythe Danner, worked on a film. On one of the weekends abroad, Paltrow's father, director Bruce Paltrow, took her on a trip to Paris that would stay with her for the rest of her life.
"We stayed at the Ritz and he took me to all the museums—all we did was see art everywhere we went,' Paltrow remembered.
'And he let me order French fries for breakfast. And he let me take a walk by myself,' she added. 'I'll never forget that. He let me walk around the Place Vendôme all by myself.'
On the plane back to London, Bruce told his daughter the touching reason he'd planned the Parisian getaway. 'He said, 'Do you know why I took you to Paris, just you and me, and mommy and Jake didn't come with us?' And I said, 'No, why?' And he said, 'Because I wanted you to see Paris for the first time with a man who will always love you, no matter what,'" Paltrow shared.
'From that point forward, Paris became a special idea in my head, a place that I returned to many, many times, and that will always intrinsically hold my father's spirit for me,' she continued. 'I never feel very far away from him when I'm there. It was his favorite city in the world.'
Naples has also played a major role in Paltrow's life story. Before her 2025 trip, she was last there to film 1999's 'The Talented Mr. Ripley.' During the shoot, she received devastating news about her father and grandfather Arnold Paltrow. ''Ripley' was, in fact, a really tough movie for me. My father and my grandfather were both diagnosed with cancer within six weeks of each other when I was on that film,' she shared.
Three years later, her father passed away while on an Italian road trip with Paltrow to celebrate her 30th birthday. Bruce fell ill from complications related to his oral cancer on their way from Tuscany to Portofino. He died in Rome on Oct. 3, 2002.
'This sort of solidified my complicated feelings about Italy. And yet, I've always been so drawn to it,' Paltrow said of her father's death. It wasn't until over 10 years ago that Paltrow returned to the country with now-husband Brad Falchuk and 'started the process of healing' her emotional relationship with Italy.
Later in the podcast, Paltrow took a more lighthearted turn and revealed how decades of practice have made her an expert at one coveted travel skill: 'While I'm packing, I literally try on what I'm going to wear every day. I think it all out, I lay it all out—it takes me hours. But then, I have a perfect little suitcase. And I don't underpack, I don't overpack,' she said. 'This is an art I feel I have mastered after years of travel mistakes. I now front-load it with time and attention, and then I have a stress-free trip.'