How to do ‘boyfriend breakfast' like Gwyneth Paltrow (tops optional)
Gwyneth Paltrow – net worth: $200 million – has been espousing the virtues of the 'boyfriend breakfast' since 2022, when she revealed to her 8.8 million Instagram followers that she likes to cook them for her husband, Brad Falchuk.
'When Brad was just my boyfriend, I started a tradition of making him breakfast every Saturday morning,' she wrote. 'Coming up with surprising menus, the prepping and cooking was a way for me to disconnect with the other stresses of my life and direct my focus on my boyfriend. It became this very special moment for us. They are called #boyfriend breakfasts to this day.'
On Father's Day, she made the moment even more special by cooking Falchuk's breakfast topless, posting a video to Instagram of her slaving over a hot stove in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. One can only hope the oil from her Tuscan sausages didn't splash.
Unsurprisingly, Paltrow's boyfriend breakfasts have provoked a backlash, not helped by an article on her lifestyle website, Goop, revealing that she doesn't always eat the breakfast she cooks, preferring to fast in the mornings while Brad tucks into his gluten-free egg soldiers with organic avo and some crispy martyrdom on the side. But Paltrow had an answer for those critics accusing her of setting back feminism to the 1950s.
'What's actually anti-feminist, at this point, is prescribing what feminism is – including looking down on domesticity,' she responded. 'For me, it's not anti-feminist to serve; it's an act of service that's about seeing the other person and understanding their needs. It brings a particular energy and intimacy to a relationship. Cooking is also, for me – and I think many type A people – relaxing and grounding. Embracing something so traditionally feminine and old-fashioned balances the hard-driving, work side of myself.'
From her marble-top kitchen in Montecito, Meghan Markle was clearly taking notes. Four years later, she'd take Paltrow's words and make an eight- part Netflix documentary out of them. No doubt her Notes app is open once more – for Paltrow has just released another wheeze. Not content with giving us the #boyfriendbreakfast, she's now intent on dressing the world in 'boyfriend breakfast style'. For heaven forfend you cook his eggs in an M&S nightie and a bobbled dressing gown.
Just as the world was tiring of TikTok-friendly microtrends like 'mob wife' and 'coastal grandma', Paltrow is proposing another one. 'You asked, we answered', she recently posted on Goop's Facebook page. 'The boyfriend breakfast shop: easy shirtdresses, boxer shorts and pj sets inspired by Gwyneth.' Although strictly speaking, surely they were inspired by Brad, since the items in question (which are currently being sold on goop.com) seem to be comprised of oversized shirts and stripy boxer shorts – garments you may find familiar if you happen to have a teenaged daughter, who has likely been plundering her dad's wardrobe for the same items for years.
This is Paltrow's trick: putting her own spin on items we already own, then elevating them by recasting them in her own image. It's hard to reach midlife without acquiring at least one oversized shirt, while the high street is currently groaning with stripy boxer shorts, all of which cost considerably less than the $175 'Shorty' boxer Paltrow is selling under her own brand, G. Label. But none of this will deter her fans. They're buying into a lifestyle. No matter that they're in Morecambe: by purchasing her $325 'Teddy' shorts, they'll feel bathed in the benevolent glow of a Montecito sunrise.
G. Label Teddy short, $325, Goop
G. Label Shorty boxer, $175, Goop
In an era where the word 'storytelling' is bandied about too frequently, Paltrow is a masterclass in how to do it well. 'She offers a regular and stylised window into her personal life which is aspirational but attainable,' notes Sara McCorquodale, founder influencer insights agency, Corq. 'That's not to say it isn't idealised – everything about Paltrow and Goop is elevated – but the concept of a relaxed Saturday morning making breakfast is not out of reach. On a deeper level, Paltrow's boyfriend breakfast concept points to something that is highly inspirational to many people: finding love and new traditions with a new partner post-divorce. It's a lifestyle concept about having a nice breakfast, but in a bigger sense it's about getting the extremely pleasant life that you always wanted.'
While it's a sexist cliché to pit Paltrow and the Duchess of Sussex against each other, it's hard not to conclude that the latter has tried to follow Paltrow's playbook. Few could blame her. Paltrow is the Martha Stewart of her day, with added Hollywood cachet to boot. But while she might have the privilege and platform, that doesn't mean what she has achieved is easy, even if she makes it seem so.
Just as she's at the vanguard of ' quiet luxury ', she's a dab hand at 'quiet marketing'. 'She's been relatively slow to commercialise her boyfriend breakfast concept, which has had millions of views and now has an invested audience grown over several years,' notes McCorquodale. 'Many celebrities would have capitalised on this much faster and more aggressively through books and even a podcast, but in doing so they would have risked making it seem contrived. Paltrow has wisely launched products linked to her boyfriend breakfast concept at a time when there is a definite, positive audience. Very few stars are able to sell products to their followers without some kind of backlash. The parasocial Instagram environment means negative sentiment can quickly snowball.'
With a £300 million business under her belt and G. Label growing at an estimated 42 per cent year over year, Paltrow is owning the lifestyle and wellness space, yet is still careful to appear humble, a quality that people seem to require more of female entrepreneurs than males, as she knows only too well. When she was a guest on the podcast Aspire With Emma Grede last month, Paltrow spoke honestly about her failures as a CEO, the role she's held at Goop since 2016. 'It's important to admit defeat early. If it's not working, let it go, [because] it doesn't get better.' Wise words that more should heed.
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