Gwyneth Paltrow’s is no stranger to controversy, and in her latest one yet, the Goop founder’s derogatory nickname for her former BFF was revealed in a biography published Tuesday.
Gwyneth, the biography by Amy Odell, claims that Paltrow turned on her former best friend, Winona Ryder, in the 90s, labelling her, “Vagina Ryder.”
Odell writes that after Paltrow split from Brad Pitt in 1997, she moved into Ryder’s New York City apartment. At the time, Ryder was dating Matt Damon and Paltrow started dating Damon’s best friend, Ben Affleck.
Odell writes in her book that after Ryder and Damon had a fight, Ryder quickly told her then-boyfriend that she had been robbed. According to the author, this happened twice, with Damon responding empathetically to Ryder—a vastly different reaction to Paltrow, who believed Ryder was lying to grab attention.
“Gwyneth was annoyed that Damon couldn’t see it. Though Damon was kind to her friends, Gwyneth didn’t seem to like him after that,” Odell writes.
While the purported feud was never publicly or directly addressed by either actresses, Paltrow published an article on Goop in 2009 describing an unnamed “frenemy” who was “hell-bent on taking [her] down.”
“This person really did what they could to hurt me. I was deeply upset, I was angry, I was all of those things you feel when you find out that someone you thought you liked was venomous and dangerous. I restrained myself from fighting back… But one day I heard that something unfortunate and humiliating had happened to this person. And my reaction was deep relief and happiness.”
The schadenfreude sentiment is allegedly in reference to the script-stealing incident for the 1998 rom-com Shakespeare in Love, a Hollywood urban legend that recounts the story of the movie’s script—with the lead role originally for Ryder— being snatched by Paltrow, who allegedly saw the script on her friend’s coffee table and eventually booked the role.
The two’s friendship famously never recovered from that incident despite Paltrow denying the claim she saw the script on Ryder’s coffee table and instead was sent it by her agent.
Odell, who also published a biography on Vogue’s Anna Wintour, titled Anna, highlights the raw moments of the Goop founder’s life and the events that led to her prominent presence in Hollywood.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Paltrow’s team for comment.
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