Gwyneth Paltrow Says Goop Just Had 'A Couple Of Toxic People' While Hitting Back At Workplace Culture Complaints!

Gwyneth Paltrow is finally hitting back at claims her wellness company is “toxic”!

You might recall back in 2022, the businesswoman’s second-in-command at Goop, a woman named Elise Loehnen, opened up about one reason she left the company two years prior. She blasted Goop’s “toxic” cleanses — dieting programs Gwyneth often participates in and promotes, claiming it led to terrible body image. She never bashed the Gwyn or the company itself, just the messaging some of their initiatives were promoting. However, it sent a message that not everything was going so well behind the scenes of the wellness brand!

Flash forward to this year, Goop was called out again, this time in Amy Odell‘s unauthorized Gwyneth biography. After interviewing over 200 people about the actress, the author determined the Glee alum ran a “chaotic and sometimes toxic office culture” that resulted in a high turnover rate, per The Independent.

Apparently, employees felt that they were overworked and underpaid, blasting Gwyneth for her “impatience and perfectionism” as well as her “erratic” and “childish” behavior. Per USA Today, an ex-staffer said they “never felt less well in [their] life than during [their] time there.” Yikes! Sounds very similar to Loehnen’s claims.

In a candid chat with Vogue UK out on Tuesday, the Iron Man star attempted to set the record straight on these icky allegations. Let’s just say, it’s a very telling response…

For starters, the 53-year-old vehemently denied the allegations, complaining:

“That bothers me. ‘Oh, Goop has a toxic culture.’ That drives me insane because we have never had that.”

But she admitted they DID have “toxic people” working there! The founder and CEO explained:

“Granted, we’ve had a couple of toxic people, and because of my fear of confrontation, maybe I didn’t deal with it quickly enough.”

She even owned up to the fact that toxicity did “cascade down,” adding that she takes full “responsibility for that.”

So, um, in other words: it WAS toxic for a little bit! At least when those folks were on staff — she just doesn’t want to admit it!

Gwyneth went on to insist Goop has “such a good culture,” she urged:

“It’s something that I am so proud of and worked so hard on and–“

The mother of two then took a moment to consider her next words, the journalist noted, before she acknowledged that people are always going to have different perspectives. The leading lady continued:

“Of course I’m going to say, ‘It’s not a toxic culture.’ Of course! We are all human beings who go to work, sometimes with unresolved stuff, and that comes out. People can have bad work experiences anywhere.”

And she’s the CEO! She gets everything she wants the way she wants… and profits the most while doing it all. Obviously, she doesn’t see any problems!

So, while she can acknowledge her perspective isn’t the only one, she still doubled down on her view, saying she can “guarantee” these claims don’t accurately describe her office environment:

“But I can guarantee if I dropped you into the Goop office in Santa Monica, you’d be like: ‘What the f**k are these people talking about?’ You would see really engaged, really brilliant, highly collaborative teams who are excited. So I don’t like that kind of stuff — it impacts the team.”

Hmm… So, she can kinda admit there was a problem. Hopefully, she at leasts acts faster the next time there’s a “toxic” person there!