The discourse surrounding nepotism, specifically the role of nepo babies in Hollywood, is never-ending, fueled by the celebrities who wade into it. Gwyneth Paltrow, famously a nepo baby herself, is the latest to do so: in an interview with Bustle published Wednesday, the 51-year-old actor and Goop founder called the term nepo baby “an ugly moniker.”
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Speaking about her 19-year-old daughter Apple Martin, Paltrow said the “whole nepo baby culture” has created a “judgment that exists around kids of famous people.”
“She just wants to be a kid and be at school and learn,” she said. “But there’s nothing wrong with doing or wanting to do what your parents do.”
Paltrow continued: “Nobody rips on a kid who’s like, ‘I want to be a doctor like my dad and granddad.’ The truth is if you grow up in a house with a lot of artists and people making art and music, that’s what you know, the same way that if you grow up in a house with law, the discussions around the table are about the nuances of whatever particular law the parents practice.”
The term nepo baby has been a contentious one in Hollywood for years and was brought to a fever pitch by New York Magazine’s 2022 story tracking the well-connected children of stars. In March, Sofia Coppola’s teenage daughter, Romy Mars, stirred the ongoing conversation when she uploaded a TikTok about being grounded because she tried to charter a helicopter to get dinner with a friend on her dad’s credit card—and sharing she actually wasn’t allowed to have social media because her parents “don’t want me to be a nepotism kid.”
Many celebrity nepo babies have espoused Paltrow’s point of view over the years, from Zoe Kravitz to Drew Barrymore. Kate Hudson, the daughter of Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, made a similar argument to The Independent in a 2022 interview. “I look at my kids and we’re a storytelling family. It’s definitely in our blood,” she said. “I don’t care where you come from, or what your relationship to the business is—if you work hard and you kill it, it doesn’t matter.”
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