Gwyneth Paltrow's Daughter Apple's Stunning Transformation

Gwyneth Paltrow grew up with famous parents, so she was uniquely equipped to raise children for whom lives of anonymity would be impossible. But while her daughter, Apple Martin, once seemed fated to become one of those children of the stars who get famous in their own right, by the time she reached adulthood, she hadn't yet seized her celebrity birthright by becoming an aspiring model, pop star, or actor. However, her transformation from a baby whose name was relentlessly roasted into a mildly scandalous socialite has had its nepo moments.

You couldn't see her, but Apple made her big screen debut in the movie "Proof" — her mom was pregnant with her during filming of the 2005 thriller. Paltrow almost died while giving birth, but it was Apple's dad, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who was given the honor of naming the fruits of her terrifying labor. In a 2022 Instagram Q&A, Paltrow revealed how she reacted to his quirky moniker choice. "I fell in love with it," she wrote (via People). "I thought it was original and cool. I can't imagine her being called anything else."

The world has grown accustomed to Apple's odd name, but some might find it hard to believe that she's not a little sapling anymore; Apple has grown into her mom's twin, minus the Hollywood career.

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Apple Blythe Alison Martin was born on May 14, 2004. A year later, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that her daughter's first word was fittingly something that apples — or manzanas — need to reach their full potential: agua. "She says a lot of words in Spanish, I speak to her in Spanish sometimes because I want her to learn," the proud mom told USA Today (via People).

Apple's rapidly expanding vocab also got off to a somewhat Goop-y start, as her mom made sure she was learning the names of healthy foods and how to travel like a Hollywood highborn who doesn't have time for traffic. "She says 'Chop, chop' for helicopter ... For hummus, she says 'hummy,'" said Paltrow.

Perhaps Apple took a "chop chop" to her first concert. In July 2005, she was photographed with her mom at the Live 8 London concert. She secured her status as a toddler trendsetter by rocking a pair of pink noise-canceling earmuffs as she watched her dad and his band rock out onstage. While Paltrow was focused on her daughter's linguistic education, Chris Martin was taking charge of her music schooling. "I was excited that my daughter's first concert experience was seeing U2 and Paul McCartney at the same time," he told Rolling Stone of his fellow Live 8 performers. He also revealed that Apple was saying those Spanish words with a mysterious French accent.

To raise a child like Apple Martin, it takes a village — one inhabited by the high "Vogue" priestess herself. Apple started schmoozing with some big stars at a young age and can even boast that she once lounged in a stroller manned by Madonna. In 2008, she was spotted enjoying a playdate in the Hamptons with the Material Girl's son, David Banda, who had to settle for the backseat of their baby buggy.

Apple also spent a lot of time around the accomplished thespian she got the first of her two middle names from: her grandmother Blythe Danner. The doting grandparent was photographed taking Apple to ballet class in NYC, treating her to a snow cone during an outing in Santa Monica, and shopping with her at a farmers' market. In 2010, Danner told Classy Mommy that Apple had started calling her "Lalo," which suited her just fine. "I didn't really want to be Nana or Grandma," she explained.

Danner also revealed that she wasn't the type to spoil her grandkids with expensive playthings. "I didn't have toys. So, I'd have a hammer and nails and stuff. They love it," she said. However, she wasn't tasked with keeping Apple and her brother, Moses Martin, entertained with basic construction equipment every time the kids' parents needed a helping hand. In 2012, Gwyneth Paltrow told Harper's Bazaar that the kids had a nanny from whom they were learning French. "Their previous nanny was Spanish, so they're fluent in Spanish," she added.

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Apple Martin's childhood was far from ordinary. She regularly traveled to Paris with her mom, went on a family vacation in Italy with "E.T." director Steven Spielberg, and skipped school to get pampered. "I'll probably get kicked out of our school for admitting this, but I let Apple stay home yesterday ... We went to the beauty salon," Gwyneth Paltrow told Good Housekeeping (via Cosmopolitan) in 2011. By age 8, Martin was experimenting with makeup. "She'll put on mascara," Paltrow told People. "And sometimes I'll let her wear something out to dinner — but just a little dab."

Martin was also developing an ultra-feminine sense of style. "She likes anything that's pretty, pretty, pretty or has a bow or a ruffle or is pink," Paltrow told Harper's Bazaar in 2012. She revealed that Martin was particularly fond of the pink princessy dress Paltrow wore to the 1999 Academy Awards, where she won best actress for "Shakespeare in Love." When she was 7, Martin even started giving her mom style advice. "My daughter loves a fashion moment," Paltrow said on "The Chew" (via British Vogue).

But Paltrow didn't just want to indulge Martin's interest in the superficial. In an InStyle interview (via ABC News), she revealed the entertainment restriction that peeved her privileged daughter: "I only let [the kids] watch TV in French or Spanish."

Apple Martin's parents consciously uncoupled in 2014, but Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin maintained a healthy co-parenting relationship from that point onward. They also started allowing Apple to get more involved in their careers. In 2016, Apple and her little brother got up in front of a huge crowd at the Glastonbury Music Festival to sing "Up&Up" with Coldplay. A year earlier, Paltrow had posted an Instagram video of Apple strumming a guitar and singing the Marcy's Playground song "Keegan's Christmas" during what appeared to be a holiday recital.

According to Paltrow, Apple's interest in cosmetics also began to increase around this time, and she was supportive of her daughter using makeup to practice freedom of self-expression — even if she was doing so with cheap eyeshadow that was definitely not Goop-approved. "I let her buy the things that she wants to buy," Paltrow told Refinery29 in 2016.

Apple even gave her mom some advice about her cosmetics line, Juice Beauty. Thanks to Kylie Jenner, lip kit mania was in full swing by 2016, and it seems that Apple wasn't immune from it. "The latest thing that she's asked me is, 'Can we please make a lip kit that stays on all day long?'" Paltrow told the New York Post that year. She also revealed that she had released a contouring kit because Apple — then 12 — had requested one.

The debate between Swifties and the Beyhive over which of their pop idols reigns supreme as the GOAT will never die, but Apple Martin once had a foot in both worlds. In a 2016 appearance on "My Favorite Song with John Benjamin Hickey," Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that her daughter was a devoted Taylor Swift fan while recalling the first time they attended one of the singer's concerts together. "It was my first experience of experiencing my daughter completely swept up in something that was her own thing," she said, adding that Apple had the lyrics of all of Swift's songs memorized.

While Swift got Paltrow's seal of approval, the actor may be a bit more partial to Beyoncé. The two women are good friends, and it seems their girls had a similar rapport in 2016. When Apple celebrated her 12th birthday that year, Beyoncé's oldest daughter, Blue Ivy, partied with her.

A few months earlier, Paltrow had shared an Instagram photo of Apple and Blue Ivy holding hands ahead of Super Bowl 50. It was also the year Coldplay headlined the halftime show while Beyoncé was a guest performer. In an interview with CBS News, Chris Martin recalled what Apple told him when he admitted to suffering from a bad case of the jitters ahead of the show: "She said, 'Dad, the worst that could happen is you'll get turned into a meme. And after a month or so people will just forget!'"

When Apple Martin entered her teenage years, her behavior became predictable for someone her age — in other words, her parents' sole existence was enough to embarrass her. However, during a 2019 appearance on "The Rachael Ray Show," Gwyneth Paltrow revealed there was one mom behavior Apple found especially horrifying: whenever she decided to bust out some dance moves during mother-daughter shopping trips. "I am mortifying. ... If I do anything silly at all in public, the color drains from her face," Paltrow said of her then-14-year-old (via the Daily Mail).

Apple's dad did something far more discourteous than dancing in her presence in public; he committed the unforgivable act of showing up at her place of employment. "My daughter works in a clothing store. It's her first job," Chris Martin said in a 2020 appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." It looks like even a double nepo baby like Apple had to experience the joys of working in retail as a teen.

Teenagers of all backgrounds can also sympathize with her feelings toward her dad showing up unannounced one day. According to Chris, Apple panicked and started mouthing something to him when she spotted him waiting to purchase a T-shirt in her checkout line, likely trying to warn him away. "I felt terrible, and so I moved to the other line — just holding my T-shirt, really scared of my daughter," the singer recalled.

Usually, parents get frustrated with their teen's social media usage. However, Apple Martin seemed to have the opposite problem. In a since-deleted 2019 Instagram comment, she complained about a family photo Gwyneth Paltrow had posted. "Mom we have discussed this. You may not post anything without my consent," she wrote (via The Guardian). And after Paltrow posed nude to celebrate her birthday in 2020, it took just three letters for Martin to convey her feelings about her mother sharing that photo on Instagram: "MOM."

In an interview with The Times, Paltrow insisted Martin was playing up her mortification for laughs. "Oh, people misunderstand that. That's just her humor," she explained. "Her British half makes her very dry." The "Iron Man" actor was also more than making up for her mortifying mom behavior. "Every red carpet look I have saved for her," Paltrow told People in 2020. That's a style inheritance worth suffering some parental embarrassment for.

Proving there were no hard feelings, Martin helped her mom promote her G. Label clothing line in 2020 by modeling a few of its offerings, including a polka-dot dress and jean skirt. She seemed to accept her role as the heir to the Goop kingdom when she interviewed her mom and grandmother in a video promoting Goop skincare products, and her beauty acumen was seriously starting to impress her mom, who praised her ability to execute a winged eye. "She's a beauty queen," Paltrow gushed to People.

Apparently, Apple Martin is as adept with a pen as she is with an eyeliner pencil. When Gwyneth Paltrow appeared on "The Rachael Ray Show" in 2019, she described Apple as a "singer-songwriter." Apple proved that was no lie in 2021 when she co-wrote a song with Selena Gomez. The track "Let Somebody Go" is featured on the Coldplay album "Music of the Spheres."

While Apple was showing some interest in following in Chris Martin's footsteps, she was also displaying a talent that was better suited for her mom's profession: the ability to make audiences laugh. In a 2021 video shared on the Goop TikTok account, Apple brutally mocked her mom's daily routine. As Paltrow sipped on a cloudy orange beverage, Apple quipped, "Goopglow is a part of her cleanse, which she's been on since the day I was born." The video ended with a hilarious description of Paltrow's job. "Then she gets to work making some more vagina eggs," said the teen. "And candles, also vagina candles. And vagina perfumes. Just everything vagina."

When you get roasted by your gen z daughter... #motherdaughter #goop #fyp #gwynethpaltrow

♬ original sound – Goop

Although Apple seemed to get a kick out of making fun of Paltrow, the actor insisted that her daughter was growing out of that stage where everything her parents did displeased her. "My daughter likes my style now, which is great because there was a period of time where she thought I was a total loser," Paltrow told People in 2021. That same year, she wrote on the Goop Instagram account, "Every year on Apple's birthday, we get a new piercing — it's this little tradition we have."

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Apple Martin graduated from high school in 2022 and decided to attend college at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Gwyneth Paltrow's reaction to her daughter starting college was typical of her particular brand of Earth Mother-ness. "It feels almost as profound as giving birth," she said on "CBS Sunday Morning." Of course, Martin was no longer a helpless babe who relied on her mom for survival, and not long before her classes began, she exercised her newfound independence by throwing a party at Paltrow's home in the Hamptons. It got so rowdy the police reportedly showed up after neighbors complained about the noise.

After striking out on her own, Martin also started taking advantage of her parental connections in a way she hadn't before. In 2023, she jetted off to France for Paris Fashion Week and attended her first runway show. It was a Chanel event, so she wore a look from the luxury brand: a cropped tweed coat and matching minidress that featured a black-and-white plaid print.

Martin's fashion coming-out party was followed by an interview with Vogue, in which she described her unique personal style to the magazine. "I can't say that I am super trendy," she said. "I love sweaters and oversized cardigans, loafers, and a good pair of comfy Levis ... I'm aiming for a mix of classic '90s and cool grandpa." So, the season is forever "Meg Ryan fall" in her closet.

As Martin got older, it became evident that she had a lot more in common with Paltrow than her physical appearance — including her sense of style. According to "The Talented Mr. Ripley" star, her daughter was especially fond of some of her vintage clothing. "She's absconded with many '90s Calvin Klein skirts, tube skirts, and all kinds of slip dresses," Paltrow said on "Today" in 2024.

Martin also shares her mother's passion for beauty products that aren't loaded with chemicals. "The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. My daughter has gotten so into clean, non-toxic beauty, vegan," Paltrow told E! News in 2024. She added that she regularly seeks Martin's advice when developing Goop skincare products, and apparently, Martin also encouraged her mom to return to acting in the movie "Marty Supreme."

In 2024, Apple Martin was introduced to high society at Le Bal des Débutantes, an exclusive, invitation-only event attended by the children of the famous and the fabulously wealthy — past nepo baby debutantes include Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's daughter, Ava Phillippe, and "The Substance" star Margaret Qualley, whose mom is Andie MacDowell. While Apple's name is reminiscent of Snow White, her custom tiered gown designed by Valentino was more Cinderella-inspired — if the animated fairytale frock was deflated and adorned with a black bow.

While Apple delivered a fashion moment to rival any of her mom's red carpet looks, some critics weren't impressed with her behavior. She was filmed rolling her eyes at her escort, Count Leo Henckel von Donnersmarck and she was accused of being bratty by photobombing another attendee when she spied a camera. However, the girl whose spotlight she swooped in to steal, Countess Aliénor Loppin de Montmort, insisted that Apple did nothing wrong. "[She's] genuinely the nicest girl ever!" the countess told People.

#applemartin #baldesdebutantes #chrismartin #gwynethpaltrow #valentinocouture

♬ MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS) – Tommy Richman

Still, Apple was better behaved while sharing a dance with her dad, and even though she's all grown up now, she remains the apple of his eye. Of attending the debutante ball, Chris Martin told Rolling Stone, "[It's] so not something I ever thought I'd do, but because I'm so in love with her, I'm like, 'OK.'" How sweet.