Gwyneth Paltrow faces backlash for claiming she started face mask trend amid pandemic

Gwyneth Paltrow is facing backlash online after she claimed that she was one of the first people to wear a face mask amid the pandemic, and that the safety measure was then “adopted by the culture”.

The Goop founder discussed her early appearance in a face mask during an interview with The New York Times, after the outlet raised the topic of Paltrow’s face mask selfie in February 2020.

In the photo, which she had posted to Instagram at the time, the actress, who was reportedly on a plane on her way to France, can be seen wearing a black face mask with filters and an eye mask.

“En route to Paris. Paranoid? Prudent? Panicked? Placid? Pandemic? Propaganda? Paltrow’s just going to go ahead and sleep with this thing on the plane. I’ve already been in this movie. Stay safe. Don’t shake hands. Wash hands frequently,” she captioned the photo, referencing her role in the movie Contagion, where she played Patient Zero.

When asked about her early adoption of the safety measure, which has become common practice in many countries amid the pandemic, Paltrow told The Times: “This is a familiar pattern in my life. I do something early, everyone is like: ‘What is she doing? She’s insane.’ And then it’s adopted by the culture.”

The comment prompted mixed reactions on social media, where many have mocked Paltrow for insinuating that she was the first person to start wearing a face mask and for her “utter lack of self-awareness”.

“My favourite humble brag is ‘I started wearing a mask, and then EVERYONE started wearing a mask.’ Like are we in Mean Girls?” one person tweeted.

Another tweet, which included a screenshot from the portion of the article with the caption: “Ok Gwyneth calm down,” has since been liked more than 13,000 times.

“Imagine thinking you’re a trendsetter wearing a mask during a pandemic,” someone else wrote, while another joked: “Everyone say thanks to Gwyneth for starting the mask trend and saving our lives.”

Others pointed out that people living in Asian countries such as Japan, China and Taiwan have worn masks for decades and that the practise has not just been adopted widely as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with one person tweeting: “Seems like Gwyneth had never been to Japan before. Or South Korea. Or in fact any of East Asia.”

“4.3bn Asians would like a word,” another person said.

But despite what she claims was her early adoption of the precautionary measure, Paltrow said that the mask did not protect her from getting Covid, telling The Times that she was actually one of the “first people” she knew to contact the virus.

“I wore [the mask] on the plane, but I didn’t wear it to the function that I was going to, and actually ended up getting Covid and coming home, and being one of the first people that I had heard of to have it,” she said.

The 48-year-old’s comments come after she opened up about some of the ongoing Covid symptoms she’s experiencing in an article shared to her Goop website this week.

In the article, Paltrow revealed that she is still experiencing “some long-tail fatigue and brain fog,” as well as “really high levels of inflammation” in her body.