Gwyneth

The Biography

De: Amy Odell

Narrado por: Chanté McCormick

New York Times bestselling author Amy Odell takes listeners inside the world of one of the most influential and polarizing celebrities of the modern era—complete with exclusive new stories about her childhood, acting career, romances, and her lifestyle brand Goop.

Love her or hate her, Gwyneth Paltrow has managed to stay on the A-list, her influence spanning entertainment, fashion, and the modern wellness industry. Gwyneth was born to parents viewed as Hollywood royalty, and that immense privilege turned her into a target of backlash when, at just twenty-six, she won an Oscar. Rather than cave in to criticism, she leveraged the attention for valuable endorsement deals and film roles, eventually founding her controversial wellness and lifestyle company, Goop.

Over the decades, she has participated in countless carefully managed interviews, but the real Gwyneth—the basis of her motives, desires, strengths, faults, and vulnerabilities—has never been fully revealed, until now. Based on exclusive conversations with more than 220 sources, including close current and former friends and colleagues, this deeply researched biography provides insight and behind-the-scenes details of her relationships, family, friendships, iconic films, and tenure as the CEO of Goop. Gwyneth offers the fascinating, definitive look at how Paltrow rose to prominence, stayed in the limelight, and shaped culture—for better or worse—for so long.

©2025 Amy Odell (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Awful narration & not interesting

First of all I can’t believe I made it through listening to the whole thing with this narrator, who was awful. Bad cadence, high pitched at times, consistently mispronounced words.
Secondly, the book does not represent any deeply reported nuggets or insight. In fact, not really anything reported in a revealing way.
I was really disappointed.

Very interesting look at popular culture

While Paltrow’s early life and celebrity gossip was entertaining, I found the most interesting (and scary!) part of the story was how easily we can be influenced by celebrity, pseudo science and wellness culture. I was surprised at the number of mispronunciations, especially Elise Loehnen’s last name which should have been caught in editing.

Read don’t listen

Not the most interesting celeb biography. But if you’re intrigued, then read the book. DO NOT listen because the narrator is terrible. Made the book that much worse. Hard to get through.

Wrong Narrator For This Book

The narrator’s inconsistent and often wrong pronunciations (especially of well known people like Harvey Weinstein) were frustrating.
This book was juicy for those with average Gwyneth knowledge, it only delivered a few really juicy stories for the Gwyneth literate and completely failed to mention Gwyneth’s friend Mario Batali’s “Me Too” movement and fallout.

Mean girl writer

Written like mean girl gossip. She hit all the big life moments but didn’t give much context to what it’s like to scale a start-up (Goop) and instead focused on idle gossip designed to make Gwyneth look bad. Felt like a hit piece. I’d be more interested in the memoir, whenever Gwyneth decides to write it.

Mediocre book and poor narrator

For anyone who follows pop culture, at least 80% of what’s covered here is already known. Furthermore, this narrator is better suited for fiction or something else altogether. Really poor choice for this book.

Kinda negative

The book opens up with a backhanded intro on Gwyneth, seemingly the authors disappointment that she declined to participate. This carries through out the book.
The bio itself was interesting and not as gossip fiction as I expected. The stories from people seemed to be factual and the same behavior described by so many different people at different parts in her life makes it’s hard to argue that it’s not true. The bio paints a picture of a polarizing woman who struggles with success due to her own notoriety which I found fascinating. Love her or hate her, after reading this I have a lot of respect for her gumption.

Well-written, propulsive bio ruined by narrator

I was so looking forward to this book, having enjoyed Odell's Wintour biography. Unfortunately, GWYNETH is ruined by narrator Chanté McCormick, whose clearly rushed and lazy performance is studded with egregious mispronunciation and ultimately invalidated by high-pitched, whiny squeaking for emphasis and dialogue. This serves to editorialize quotations and weaken Odell's intended objectivity, which itself frays as the book delves into Goop's flirtations with pseudoscience and snake oil cures. Having preordered the title months ago from Audible, I had no choice but to return it. I will pick up a print copy instead.

Loved Gwyneth’s story and the memories

Such a fun and interesting read, ended up loving Gwyneth exponentially more after listening to this story - love her kale, your vagina matters, families can co-parent trailblazing for many decades.
It was a story that needed to be told because it empowers women.

Terrible narrator

The narrator is the worst part of this book. I had to Google whether she was AI - she’s that bad. Her intonations are unnatural, and it sounds like she’s never read a book, let alone spoken aloud. She frequently mispronounces names and places (calling the Scottish Highlands the Scottish “High-Lands”). Truly a terrible choice, which distracts from the book which honestly didn’t even have a chance at captivating my attention because I can’t get past the terrible listening experience. Who hired this narrator???