Here’s the cover of Marie Claire Australia’s March issue, with Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s a bad cover for her, right? While I make fun of Our Lady of Perpetual Goops, she usually photographs well and she’s usually up for a good editorial. Anyway, in this MC interview, Gwyneth admits that she and Chris Martin had actually separated a year before their conscious uncoupling announcement. Which means both were free and clear to fool around with other people, I suppose. Some highlights:

The quiet separation: Marie Claire Australia claims she purchased a house as long ago as 2012 and then went through ‘a year of quiet separation’.

Working with Johnny Depp while she and Chris separated: “Nobody knew what Chris and I had been going through, so I didn’t say, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening,’ but I did ask him mostly children-centric questions, like, ‘How is it on them?’ and ‘How did you do it?’”

On her split: “It’s very sad. You have an expectation of your life, and it’s sad to change that expectation.”

The “conscious uncoupling” term: “OK, you can make fun of the term or whatever. I didn’t invent it.”

She and Chris are still tight: “We’ve worked really f–king hard to get to [this] point. But we’re very, very close, and it’s so nice. I feel like it’s, in a way, the relationship we were meant to have.”

[From The Daily Mail & E! News]

At this point… yeah, of course she’s admitting it. We knew it already. She and Chris had spent several years living largely separate lives. They barely spent any time together. In fact, they spend so much time together post-split that I bet it sort of confuses their kids.

Other Goop news… Us Weekly had a funny story about Gwyneth bringing her kids to the Grammys and then trying to explain to them the difference between the awards for albums and records. Star Magazine also has a story about Gwyneth and her undercover boyfriend Brad Falchuk. Apparently, they’re still together but Brad wants to go public with their romance and really be her “official”. A source tells Star: “At first they were waiting for the hype around their relationship to die down, but now there’s no more excuses. He wants to start walking red carpets hand in hand.” They should totally go to the Oscars together.

Here are some pics of Gwyneth at the Grammys. Her dress was Stella McCartney. I don’t completely hate it, which shocked me.

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty, Marie Claire Australia.