Since launching her Goop lifestyle newsletter and website in 2008, Gwyneth Paltrow has come in for a fair whack of criticism and mockery, not least over a recent recommendation of a vaginal steam treatment and the use of the term “conscious uncoupling” in the announcement of her split from Chris Martin.

But the actress has defended the “misperception” of her website in a new interview, and says she was not responsible for the phrase “conscious uncoupling” appearing in her blog, posted in March last year.

Speaking to Fast Company magazine, Paltrow claimed her detractors often haven't actually read Goop themselves. “I do think a lot of the misperception comes from people who haven’t actually gone on the site, because a lot of the things you see or hear, we’re like, ‘We never said that, never wrote that, that’s not the price point, or this was totally out of context,’” she explains. 

“It seems that when people really engage, they understand who we are and what we’re doing.”

The Oscar-winning actress says it was her editor Elise Loehnen who penned the often-mocked title of her separation post: “When I announced that I was separating on the website, [Loehnen] titled the piece ‘Conscious Uncoupling’ and I had no idea.”

Paltrow, who has relocated the business from the UK to Los Angeles, now wants to expand it and describes it as her "main job" - though she dismisses the idea that focusing on Goop means she's left acting behind, implying the suggestion is sexist.

“I don’t see it as I’m leaving something behind, I see it as this year I probably won’t make a movie or I probably won’t do a TV show or a play, and I’ll focus on the business. It’s our tendency to want to put women in one little category,” she said. “That’s where we like them.”

Though she admits to some “trepidation” before starting the venture, Paltrow, 42, explains that she believes jumping in headfirst has always been her forte.

She told the publication: “I had this the other day where somebody was asking me about [the film Emma] that I did in England when I was 22. It was really my first starring role, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. And I remember at the time people saying, ‘Weren’t you intimidated to play this English heroine? You’re this American girl.’

“When I think about it, I would be petrified.”

However the Shakespeare in Love star doesn't appear too fazed by those who criticise the website, saying: “I always like it when there’s a big response to something because it tells me, ‘Oh we’ve touched a nerve here, this is really interesting.' There are a lot of media companies that would die to have the kind of response that we get from our content.”

Images: Rex Features