Rumours the company is in its death throes underestimate the actor’s talent for business – and the public’s insatiable appetite for kooky wellness gimmicks

“VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA!” That, in a nutshell (possibly the wrong metaphor), was the key to success for Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand, Goop, for many years: headline-grabbing wacky health advice and weird products that were often vagina-adjacent.

Paltrow once spelled out this strategy in a lecture to a Harvard Business School (HBS) class. It was great publicity, she explained, when people mocked Goop for doing things such as urging women to steam their vaginas to balance their hormones; the free PR caused “cultural firestorms” and she could “monetise those eyeballs”. According to a 2018 New York Times profile, Paltrow followed these nuggets of wisdom by cupping her hands around her mouth and yodelling “vagina” three times, as if it were some sort of magical incantation that made money rain down on you. (I’ve tried it at home, it didn’t work for me.)