Dripping in gold, Gwyneth Paltrow bares all on 50th birthday

Gwyneth Paltrow, who turned 50 on September 27, stripped naked and was covered in gold paint to mark her milestone age. The Oscar-winner in a magazine interview said it was "embarrassing" going for Botox when she reached 40.

Los Angeles: Actor Gwyneth Paltrow was "embarrassed" when going for Botox when she reached 40. Feeling the procedure was a "cliche," the Oscar-winner, who turned 50 on September 27, said it was part of how she "freaked out" when she hit her 40th year.

"I feel great. I feel very happy and fulfilled and not scared and weirdly not freaked out about it," she told Vogue on Tuesday in a chat to mark her 50th birthday about how she also had a crisis when she reached 30. "I remember turning 30 and feeling like there was so much pressure to be married and have a baby. I was not in a serious relationship when I turned 30, and I remember just thinking, 'I'm disappointing my parents. I haven't married my stockbroker or a lawyer, and I'm this weird artist.' "

"When you're in your 20s, you're really a kid, and I think there's this expectation that when you're 30, you are going to really start to have a handle on your life. And then when I turned 40, I really freaked out. I remember going to some doctor and getting Botox. It was terrible; it was so embarrassing. I was like, 'I'm such a cliche.' "

"I thought I had to redefine so many aspects of who I am. It wasn't as scary as I thought, by the way, but going into it I think I had a particular set of unique circumstances."

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The actor, who shares daughter Apple, 18, and son Moses, 16, with her 45-year-old first husband Chris Martin, added turning 50 was easier. Gwyneth turned Goop founder, now married to 51-year-old TV producer Brad Falchuk, made the admissions alongside a photoshoot in which she stripped naked and was covered in gold paint to mark her milestone age.

She said, "And then turning 50, it's been a lot smoother than I thought. For the last year or so leading up to it, I have been ruminating on these different chapters in a woman's life. "What does it mean to go through perimenopause and then later menopause? And why is that a taboo, and why are we put out to pasture?

"I've really recalibrated the way that I look at that stuff. I don't relate to a 26-year-old model. I don't want her life. I don't want her face. I don't want her experience. I've earned my life. I've earned my wrinkles.

"I have been through so many highs and lows, and there's a sweetness that starts to emerge from that, from having lived, from being wise, from being humble, from loving and losing and all of this stuff." (With agency inputs)