Is Gwyneth Paltrow’s business empire nearing its end? Goop ends 2024 with lawsuits and layoffs

“I don’t think that anybody thinks I actually operate my company. I think people think I’m the figurehead,” Gwyneth Paltrow said about her lifestyle company Goop in an interview with The New York Times in October 2023. In March of that year, Goop — founded by the Oscar-winning actress, who is also the CEO — celebrated its 15th anniversary in good shape. According to Paltrow’s own estimates, it employed 170 people and encompassed a wide range of brands, products, and services. Yet, Paltrow hinted that the company might not be part of her future for much longer. “I don’t think I can have this job forever,” she admitted.

Goop began as a wellness newsletter written by Paltrow from her kitchen, and has since evolved into a multimillion-dollar empire. Although it started as a media company, Goop became known for its often controversial products and practices. From scented candles named This Smells Like My Vagina (priced around $75) to vaginal eggs designed to “balance hormones,” the brand’s offerings often attract attention. Goop is also known for its unconventional holiday gift guides. For instance, in 2023, some of the most eccentric items included a 24-carat gold dildo for $15,000 and a showerhead, which “doubles as a clitoral stimulator,” priced at $119. In 2024, the eccentricity continued with a vibrator that plays your favorite songs for $159 and a baseball cap with built-in red light therapy, intended to stimulate hair growth and rejuvenate the scalp, priced at $449.

However, some specialist media outlets have begun to predict the end of Goop’s golden age. While the company continues to make headlines for its provocative products, it has recently been embroiled in legal issues. In March, it was revealed that Goop had been sued by the sexual wellness brand Good Clean Love for trademark infringement. The lawsuit stemmed from Goop’s launch of a line of sexual wellness products called good.clean.goop, which Good Clean Love argued could confuse consumers due to the similarity in their names.

Six months after the lawsuit, which is still ongoing, Goop faced another setback in September. “Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop slashing 18% of workforce to focus on beauty products,” reported several American outlets, including Women’s Wear Daily, a leading fashion industry magazine. “Goop has been trying for a while to be known as a wellness company, selling all types of products and advice that some may think is odd or non-mainstream. It was faddy. Fads don’t last,” said the executive director of the New York public relations agency HeraldPR in an interview with The New York Post.

For experts, one of the company’s challenges has been its excessive diversification. Until now, Goop has included a newsletter, a podcast, the Goop Beauty line of products, the G. Label by Goop clothing line, the Goop Wellness sexual wellness line, two Netflix shows, five stores, and Goop Kitchen, a takeout chain in Southern California. It even launched a wellness conference series and a luxury cruise, Goop at Sea, which promised “a mix of discovery and restoration” when it was promoted in 2022.

However, after the staff cuts, which affected about 40 of the 216 employees at the time, Goop decided to prioritize three core areas: “beauty, fashion, and food,” and abandon initiatives that were proving to be less profitable, such as wellness (particularly sexual wellness) and travel reported Business Insider. One of the people laid off was marketing director Lauren Johnston, a former Google executive who had only been with the company for eight months.

“There will always be a generation of women for whom Gwyneth feels like a kooky old friend or a goddess guru whose every piece of advice they follow,” Bethan Holt, The Telegraph’s fashion director, told Page Six. “But that doesn’t necessarily follow through as major business success any longer, even if Goop has long been a byword for the modern celebrity lifestyle empire.” Holt also noted that Paltrow was a pioneer in the growing trend of celebrities launching lifestyle businesses, a concept that has since been adopted by peers like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jessica Alba.

In 2018, a decade after its launch, Goop was valued at $250 million, The New York Times reported. Given that, it’s no surprise that Paltrow has largely reduced her film and TV appearances in recent years, beyond her role in the final Avengers film in 2019 and voicing an episode of American Horror Stories in 2023. “It would be very hard for me to do any acting right at the moment, just because of my job, but, I guess Robert Downey Jr. could probably always get me back,” she joked in an interview with ET last year, referencing her Avengers co-star, who plays Iron Man.

However, Goop’s golden years seem to be fading. Following an 18% reduction in staff in September, the company has now implemented another round of layoffs, affecting 6% of its workforce across several divisions, including beauty, programming, engineering, and creative. Goop spokespeople recently confirmed the cuts to Business Insider, explaining that the goal was to “optimize operational efficiency and revenue growth in our key verticals of beauty and fashion.”

“A Goop spokesperson declined to provide specific revenue figures, but said revenue grew year over year in 2023 and was on track to grow again in 2024. Goop Beauty revenue is up 21% over last year, and G. Label revenue is up 45%, she said. The spokesperson declined to say if the company is profitable,” the media reported.

The actress and businesswoman, who is estimated to have a net worth of $200 million, already has a plan for when she eventually steps away from the company. “I mean, I did say to my mom [the actress Blythe Danner] that I would do a play when I sell the company,” she revealed in her interview with The New York Times. She also mentioned that it would be “nice” to return her investors’ money when the time comes to wind down the project: “That’s important to me.”

Otherwise, she says she wants to live to the fullest what she calls her “crone” years. Cooking, working in her garden and being a grandmother, she lists. In short, quietly enjoying the economic fruits of her work and embracing retirement, whenever she makes that decision.

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