Gwyneth Paltrow has opened more about her romance with ex-fiancé Brad Pitt.
On the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, released Tuesday, the actress, 50, opened up about the couple's romance, which lasted from 1994 to 1997, when they called off their engagement.
When asked about their instant connection, Paltrow stated it was "major, major love at first sight" when they met on the set of crime thriller Seven. "It was crazy," she remarked, before discussing the couple's engagement in Argentina in December 1996, following two years of dating.
Pitt, 59, proposed to her "one night on the balcony of this house we were renting in this little town in Argentina," she recalled. "I wish I could remember exactly what he said, but he proposed, and I was overjoyed." We had discussed it, but I recall being astonished at the time. I was probably 24."
But the couple never made it down the aisle, and they called it quits just six months after getting engaged.
The Avengers actor revealed she called off the engagement because she didn't feel ready to marry, telling host Alex Cooper, "I had a lot of development to do, looking back in hindsight." In many ways, I didn't really develop into myself until I was 40 years old. And I had such a pleasant problem. I didn't even know how to listen to my instincts and act on them to do what was best for myself. I was always attempting to decide what was best for everyone else."
"When I look back, I was a kid, more than most 22, 24 year olds I meet now," she concluded. I had never really investigated who I was or what I stood for.
Paltrow, on the other hand, stated that she was "totally heartbroken when we broke up."
"It was the right thing to do at the time, but it was really difficult," she added. "A number of things had transpired; he was nine years older than me, so he was far more... He understood what he wanted and was prepared to do it, but I was all over the place, so it was one of those horrible things where I felt like, 'Oh my God, not only am I not ready, but I'm not living up to the standards again.' It was a common refrain I heard about myself."
Despite their breakup, the two have remained great friends and remain connected. "He's a great guy," she added. "He's fantastic; I really like him."
Paltrow and Pitt acknowledged being amicable exes and still loving each other in an interview on her Goop website last year. During the interview, Paltrow mentioned her late father Bruce, who died in 2002, and how he approved of Pitt and was delighted to have him as a son-in-law — "though we didn't get married, unfortunately," she told Pitt.
"Right," he said, laughing. "Oh, man, everything works out, doesn't it?"
"It does, indeed. I had finally discovered the Brad I was meant to marry. "It only took me 20 years," Paltrow, who married producer Brad Falchuk in September 2018, said.
Pitt said, "it's lovely to have you as a friend now," to which Paltrow concurred. "And I do love you," Pitt replied, adding, "I love you so much."
Cooper, 28, also interrogated Paltrow about her relationship with Ben Affleck, whom she dated on and off from 1997 to 2000, in her Call Her Daddy interview, and got her to play a game of "Brad or Ben."
The mother of two was asked to compare the two in a variety of categories, such as "Who is more romantic?" and "Who is more likely to make you laugh?" and "With whom are you more likely to have an argument?"
While Pitt was the more romantic of the two, and Affleck, 50, was more likely to make her laugh and argue with her, Paltrow also revealed that they were both "good kissers." Paltrow admitted that deciding who was better in bed was "really hard."
"Brad was like the sort of major chemistry, love of your life, kind of, at the time, and then Ben was, like, technically excellent," she chuckled. "I can't believe my daughter is listening to this!" says the mother.
"God bless J.Lo and everything she is getting over there!" Cooper laughed, referring to Affleck's wife Jennifer Lopez.
