Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Chris Martin may be splitting after 10 years of marriage, but don't even think about calling it a bad breakup! After the Iron Man 3 star and the Coldplay frontman announced their separation via a statement on her Goop website on Tuesday, using the phrase "Conscious Uncoupling," many wondered what in the world that meant for the pair moving forward. (Of course, others just mocked and Internet-memed the phrase, too.)
Conscious Uncoupling is a relatively new practice developed by bestselling author Katherine Woodward Thomas. It's a 5-week program in which couples breaking up do so in a healthy, manageable way.
Thomas argues that this method is the one surefire way to properly heal and move on from the cycle of bad breakups.
"The first step to breaking that pattern forever is to properly complete your relationships of the past, and to treat your broken heart with the same care and attention you would give anything else that was broken in your body," she writes on her site.
The single mother recalled separating from her husband Mark, and with the help of this process, she claims the split was as healthy as possible.
"We have continued to be able to experience our family not as broken, but rather as evolved and expanded," she writes. "Best of all, we both quite quickly felt ready to love and be loved by someone new . . . and we were able to welcome the new loves we called into our lives fairly quickly, as well."
"We have always conducted our relationship privately," Paltrow, 41, and Martin, 37, wrote in their statement, "and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and co-parent, we will be able to continue in the same manner."
The parents to daughter Apple, 9, and son Moses, 7, appear to be focused on the welfare of their children during this tumultuous time, and are currently on a family vacation in the Bahamas.
"We are, however, and always will be a family, and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been," their statement reads. "We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time."
