Gwyneth Paltrow Says Her Parents' 'Interfaith Marriage' Was 'Scandalous' at the Time: 'Nobody Was Happy About It'

Gwyneth Paltrow is thankful for her blended religious upbringing but reflects on how her parents' marriage wasn't at first accepted by their families.

In a video with Noa Tishby to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah on Wednesday, Dec. 25, the actress and Goop founder revealed that her mother Blythe Danner and late father Bruce Paltrow had an uphill battle when it came to being accepted as a couple by their loved ones.

"My mother's Christian, my father's Jewish," said Gwyneth, 52. "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."

"It was a bit scandalous. Nobody was happy about it," she continued, adding, "They definitely grew to accept it later in life and kind of let go of all of that."

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Danner, 81, and Bruce tied the knot in 1969 and shared two children: Gwyneth and her younger brother Jake Paltrow, 49.

Bruce and Blythe were married for more than 30 years, before his death in 2002 at age 58, after a years-long battle with throat cancer.

Of her upbringing, Gwyneth told Tishby, "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!"

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"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," the Oscar winner added. "I came to find out that we are from 17 generations of rabbis."

Of her own special memory from celebrating Hanukkah as a child, Gwyneth said, "My most favorite is when I go back to being at my grandparents' house on Long Island and getting the Hanukkah gelt."

"I have such a strong memory of the gold round coins and my brother and I tearing into them," the actress added with a smile.

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