Turning 50 is liberating for Gwyneth Paltrow — who recently celebrated her milestone with a photoshoot that had her body covered in gold paint.

"It's fantastic," she said at an event organized by her wellness and lifestyle company Goop on 16 October in Santa Monica, California. "I feel really inspired. When I was turning 40, I was a wreck."

The award-winning actor — who has taken a break from showbiz — had gone through high-profile romantic relationships with Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck, as well as marriage to Chris Martin.

She has been married a second time, to TV producer Brad Falchuk, in 2018.

"I was lucky enough to meet Brad at a time when our values are really lined up; what we wanted really lined up."

Asked if she's considering a return to acting, Paltrow said: "Not really, I don't long for it, I don't miss it. But things can rekindle at different times in your life. I've lived long enough to know that you can never make assumptions about who you're going to be. So, never say never!"

On the Goop website, she wrote: "I have seen so many changes in my 50 years. The fabric of our society has changed, we have become global, digital. We have gone from bell-bottoms to skinny jeans to bell-bottoms and we will go back again.

"Some argue we have gone backward as a society, some argue the Overton window is shifting over toward progress. What excites me is the feeling that we are living in the time of the spectrum. We seem to be embracing, like it or not, that life is not black and white.

"We are starting to be able to hold this idea of complexity, of grey area. We seem to be, in pockets anyway, embracing that what is unknown to us might not be threatening. That every human being has their own spectrums and colors and different proportions of light and dark. I want to hold myself in that understanding as I move through this (hopefully) next 50 years. Hold myself to a higher standard of compassion."