Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals She ‘Almost Died’ Giving Birth to Her Daughter Apple

Gwyneth Paltrow is opening up about her emergency C-section with daughter Apple, revealing that she “almost died” while giving birth to the now-17-year-old. The actress spoke about her first pregnancy on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast Monday, discussing how social media can pressure people who have just given birth to look a certain way.

“I had two caesareans. My daughter was an emergency, it was crazy, we almost died. It was, like, not good,” said Paltrow, who shares Apple and 15-year-old son Moses with ex-husband Chris Martin. “Anyway, there’s a big scar across your body and you’re like, ‘Oh wow, that didn’t use to be there.’ And it’s not that it’s bad or you want to judge it but you’re just like, ‘Oh my God.’”

She continued, “Thank God there wasn’t Instagram when I had babies because now it’s like, if I see someone, ‘Oh, I just gave birth two weeks ago and I have a completely washboard stomach,’ and I’m like, ‘Wow that’s not what I [looked like].’” While she says “more power” to someone who does look that ideal put forth on social media, the Oscar winner wanted to people to know “that is totally the exception.”

“And then now we’re being fed all of these other images of what we’re supposed to look like all the time – babies, no babies, whatever,’” she continued. “I think women really need to be friends with each other and all the judgment around how you have a baby, do you breastfeed, do you not, this that, are you going to work, are you not going to work. Guess what, whatever it is, it’s OK. I feel like we also have this weird thing around, it’s past perfectionism, it’s like I can do this gargantuan task that’s superhuman and why? For what?”

Paltrow previously opened up about a near-death experience she had while experiencing a miscarriage with her third child. “I had a really bad experience when I was pregnant with my third and it didn’t work out and I nearly died,” she told The Daily Mail in 2013. “So I am, like, ‘Are we good here or should we go back and try again?’”