Gwyneth Paltrow shared how her parents’ interfaith marriage reflected on her life growing up in a recent interview.
The 52-year-old actress revealed that her blended religious brought up was questioned by their families in the beginning.
In a video with Noa Tishby to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah on Wednesday, December 25th, the Shakespeare in Love star shared that her mother Blythe Danner and late father Bruce Paltrow had to put up a fight to to be accepted as a couple by their loved ones.
“My mother’s Christian, my father’s Jewish. It’s interesting — I grew up in a time in the ’70s where interfaith marriage was still kind of a big deal. And so it was really hard for both of my parents’ parents that they were marrying each other.”
Gwyneth added, “It was a bit scandalous. Nobody was happy about it. They definitely grew to accept it later in life and kind of let go of all of that.”
“I felt so fortunate because I got to grow up with these two very different worlds and very different faiths. I always felt an incredible pull to my Jewish family — I still do. And just the traditions and the warmth and the unconditional love. And the food and the yelling and the family!”
However, the Goop founder shared that she loves both the sides of her family, saying, “I’m so close to everybody on that side of my family. We’re all kind of interwoven and so important to each other and just show up for each other again and again and again. I came to find out that we are from 17 generations of rabbis.”
The Oscar winner went on to share a special memory of celebrating Hanukkah as a child, and said, “My most favorite is when I go back to being at my grandparents’ house on Long Island and getting the Hanukkah gelt.”
The mom of two added, “I have such a strong memory of the gold round coins and my brother and I tearing into them.”
