Love thy ‘brother’

 

Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow has confounded admirers and critics alike by referring to her ex-husband as “my brother” in a birthday greeting.

The 45-year-old American Oscar winner was married to Chris Martin, lead singer of the British rock band Coldplay, from 2003 till 2016. They have a daughter and a son, Apple and Moses, now 13 and 11 respectively.

She posted a photograph on Instagram of the family on the occasion of Martin’s 41st birthday on March 2 with the caption: “Happy birthday my brother. Thank you for giving me these two.”

“How cute!” was one reaction.

|Another was: “Not too bothered about the brother comment, I am just pleased that for once they are not using their children as weapons…it’s refreshing that they seem to have maintained a good relationship for their children.”But these appeared to reflect the minority opinion. 

“Calling your ex-husband and a father of your children a brother is beyond creepy!” was a typical reaction.

Comments ranged from “Sick sick sick” to “calling the man who impregnated you ‘brother’ is odd.”

Others were: “Women don’t marry and have children with their brothers. Ugh.…PS And you’re too White & Female for him to be your ‘bro’.”

And: “If I had the power to do one single thing for humanity, it would be to stop Gwyneth Paltrow from calling her ex-husband Chris Martin her ‘brother’.”

Nor is this the first time that Paltrow’s eccentric use of language has invited ridicule. When she first announced her split from Martin in 2014, she said they were “consciously uncoupling”.

While Paltrow is now engaged to Brad Falchuk, 47, an American television producer, Martin is said to be dating the US actress, Dakota Johnson, who, at 28, is 17 years younger than his ex-wife. A couple of months ago, she posted a photograph of Martin and Falchuk at a brunch they all had together and which she called the “modern family”.

Earlier this year, Paltrow opened up about her relationship with Martin on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 
in America.

“He’s really like my brother. We’re very familial,” she said. “It’s nice, it’s great. Divorce is terrible, it was very painful, it was really hard. We really genuinely wanted our kids to be as unscathed as possible.”

Perhaps Paltrow thought calling ex-husband “my brother” would make her new lover feel less insecure — recalling the occasional use of rakhi in India. For example, it was reported recently that when Sridevi was involved in the 1970s with Mithun Chakraborty — he was “insecure of Boney Kapoor’s interest in Sridevi” — “to prove her love for Mithun, she even tied a rakhi on Boney’s wrist. Years later, Boney’s first wife Mona Kapoor confirmed this in an interview.”