Gwyneth Paltrow made a rare, touching comment about being a stepmother to husband Brad Falchuk‘s daughter Izzy while celebrating her birthday on September 6. She even revealed the cute nickname she has for her stepdaughter!
“Happy Birthday my snizzle,” the 52-year-old wrote beside an Instagram Story photo of the 21-year-old, obtained by PageSix. “You have taught me so much about love. I am lucky to be your stepmom.”
Paltrow has been a maternal figure for Izzy since she married her dad in 2018, following her 2016 divorce from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. Izzy was only 14 at the time, and her little brother Brody was 12, and with their new stepmom came two new stepsiblings that were about the same ages: Paltrow and Martin’s daughter Apple Martin, 21, and son Moses Martin, 19.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Birthday Message for Stepdaughter IzzyInstagram/Gwyneth Paltrow
What Gwyneth Paltrow’s said about being a stepmom
Paltrow hasn’t spoken much about her role as stepmother, but she did make some rare comments about it when she had her husband on her Goop podcast in April 2025.
“One of the most profound lessons that I’ve learned from my relationship with your daughter [Izzy] — which is now so fantastic — is there was a testing going on,” she said at the time. “She was testing me at the time to see at what point I would reject her.”
But Paltrow knew she would never do that, and pushed through the tough times to show Izzy she could rely on her. “I was going to be that presence for her, always loving and forgiving in the face of, you know, if she acted up,” she said. “And show her that ultimately I was so there for her that she would not question my intentions or think that I was there to take you away from her.”
Though she admitted she wished she had more kids before getting with Falchuk, her family felt more complete after adding Izzy and Brody to the brood. “It started to just feel really light and really cohesive, and since then, we’ve had so many moments like that,” she said. “It keeps deepening. It’s such a particular kind of delight to see our four kids in their own relationships and being friends with each other and loving each other.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.