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Gwyneth Paltrow has said her parents' interfaith marriage was 'scandalous' for their respective families when they tied the knot in the 1960s.
The 52-year-old wellness mogul is the daughter of Meet The Parents actress Blythe Danner and the late director Bruce Paltrow.
Blythe, who is Christian, and Bruce, who was Jewish, tied the knot in 1969 and remained together until he died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 58.
As a little girl, Gwyneth was raised celebrating holidays from both traditions and has apparently continued to do so into adulthood.
Now she has shed more light on her ecumenical upbringing, in a video with Israeli activist Noa Tishby about Hanukkah.
'I grew up in a time in the '70s where I think it's still - like interfaith marriage was still kind of a big deal,' the Shakespeare In Love actress shared.
Gwyneth Paltrow has said her parents' interfaith marriage was 'scandalous' for their respective families when they tied the knot in the 1960s; she is pictured this month
The 52-year-old wellness mogul is the daughter of Blythe Danner and the late Bruce Paltrow; Gwyneth is pictured with her parents at the 1999 Oscars, where she won best actress
'And so it was really hard for both of my parents' parents that they were marrying each other, and it was a bit scandalous,' she revealed.
'Nobody was happy about it,' she confessed, adding that the families 'definitely grew to accept it later in life and they've kind of let go of all of that.'
Meanwhile Gwyneth 'felt so fortunate because I got to grow up with these two very different worlds and very different faiths.'
Gwyneth said she 'always felt an incredible pull to my Jewish family,' noting: 'I still do,' and gushing about 'the traditions and the love and the unconditional warmth and the food and the yelling - and the family, you know?'
She added: '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 showing up for each other.'
Gwyneth, whose paternal ancestors hail from Poland and Belarus and used to be called Paltrowicz, said: 'I came to find out we are from 17 generations of rabbis.'
Looking back on her childhood, she shared fond memories of visiting her Jewish grandparents on Long Island 'and getting the Hanukkah gelt,' which can be either real money or chocolate coins given to children as a gift.
Gwyneth, whose brother Jake had a bar mitzvah, explained that 'I have such a strong memory of the gold round coins and just my brother and I like tearing into them.'
Blythe, who is Christian, and Bruce, who was Jewish, tied the knot in 1969 and were together until he died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 58; they are pictured with Gwyneth in 1998
'I grew up in a time in the '70s where I think it's still - like interfaith marriage was still kind of a big deal,' the Shakespeare In Love actress shared; pictured with her parents in 2002
She is now married to Brad Falchuk, who also comes from a Jewish family and who is known as Ryan Murphy's co-creator on Glee and American Horror Story.
Gwyneth amicably co-parents her daughter Apple, 20, and son Moses, 18, with her ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who was raised in a Christian family.
Shortly after her son was born, Gwyneth explained that the decision to name him Moses was partly a tip of the hat to her father.
'When we were pregnant with Apple, if she was a boy, she would’ve been named Moses. We just always had the name,' she told Billy Bush on Access Hollywood.
'Moses to me is just such an amazing name. Plus, he was born on the holiest Sabbath of the year, which is the Saturday before Passover.'
She added that he 'was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York' and explained that Moses had been 'my father's Hebrew name,' via People.
English (US) ·