Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about grief, 'I felt like dying'

Gwyneth Paltrow got candid about a horrifying health experience that she had as she grieved the loss of her father, Bruce Paltrow, in 2002.

On the podcast of The Awards Chatter by Hollywood Reporter, the actress revisited having gotten up in a London hotel believing she was having a heart attack.

The 53-year-old claimed at that moment that she felt like dying of grief. Looking back, Paltrow shared, "There was one night where I woke up and I thought I was having a heart attack in London."

The American actress went on to explain the reason to not call an ambulance was, "cause I didn't know it's 999 [in Britain] not 911 [as in America]. I was so racked with grief."

Paltrow said that keeping herself busy through work made her overcome this painful period by putting all her feelings into work, especially when she played the role of a poet Sylvia Plath in the 2003 movie Sylvia.

"It kind of saved my life," Paltrow admitted. She said that acting gives her the opportunity to face and process feelings she does not want to experience.

The Sliding Doors star further added, "It's the way I access the darker parts of myself that I don't like that much and let them come up and out."

It made her feel like describing the structure work, she said that getting up every morning, and having somewhere to go was a blessing.

"All day long I was just mining it [the grief] and letting it out and letting it out. And listening to Sigur Ros and sobbing and letting it out and it really saved me," she added.

Soon after her father passed away, Paltrow got to know Chris Martin. The two got married, had children Apple and Moses and divorced in 2014.