The curious story of Adam and Rebekah Neumann, the faces behind famed shared-working space model WeWork, has piqued our interest more than ever with the release of WeCrashed on Apple TV+.
The eight-part series (starring Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto in the lead roles) follows the Neumanns’ story as they built the WeWork model to its US$47 billion peak, only to see it come crashing down when their prophet-like ideals and overly-ambitious plans didn’t fly with investors.
But interestingly, there was another (very famous) face who was very familiar to the Neumanns’ as their story unfolded—Gwyneth Paltrow, cousin to Rebekah.
And while the Goop founder, who is famous for forming her own rather unique business model, was well known to the couple, you won’t see her (nor an actor playing her) in the television adaptation.
Here, we look at exactly why that is, and what Gwyneth and her cousin’s relationship is like now.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebekah Neumann’s relationship
Rebekah’s father, Bob, is the brother of Gwyneth’s dad, Bruce making them cousins in real life. And while we never see Gwyneth in WeCrashed, she and Rebekah shared an amicable relationship in real life.
The show itself certainly still references that Rebekah was clearly inspired by Gwyneth (honestly, we would be too if our cousin had made it in Hollywood and built an entire lifestyle brand), and she’s routinely asked by colleagues and acquaintances, “Is Gwyneth here?” in the early episodes. Rebekah also reveals to Adam that she wrote a column on Goop.
In real life, Gwyneth actually played a part in promoting one of Rebekah’s major projects, WeGrow, which was a private school for young children aimed at revolutionising the education system by combining lessons with activities to better connect students, as well as promoting mindfulness with yoga.
Gwyneth and her cousin did a short Q&A clip discussing the benefits of the schooling system in 2018—it was even posted (and later deleted) on Goop’s blog. Watch the original video below.
Why is Gwyneth Paltrow not featured in WeCrashed?
As we now know, Gwyneth certainly had somewhat of a presence in the lives of Rebekah and Adam, but WeCrashed creators, Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello, didn’t think it was relevant enough to include her in the series.
“Generally speaking, we weren’t looking to make caricatures out of Adam and Rebekah, and that extended to not wanting to use Gwyneth Paltrow in a sort of unseemly way,” Crevello told Entertainment Tonight.
Eisenberg added that the profile of Gwyneth wouldn’t have added anything extra to the narrative, especially given her own public persona.
“I think that would have taken you out of the show and also not the story that we wanted to tell,” he explained, adding that her only purpose in the storyline is how her famous profile reflects on Rebekah.
Are Rebekah Neumann and Gwyneth Paltrow still close?
The last public-facing contact Rebekah and Gwyneth shared was the 2018 WeGrow promo video—the blog posts Rebekah reportedly wrote for Goop have assumedly been deleted from the website.
When Rebekah and Adam were pushed out of WeWork in 2019, Gwyneth made no comment, nor referenced her relationship with the pair at all, and she hasn’t since.
That said, Rebekah and Adam (who are still married) appear to be doing well for themselves. Despite keeping a very low-profile, their 2021 purchase of a US $17 million retail space in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was widely reported. They also purchased two high-rise apartment blocks in Miami.
Rebekah has also bought back WeGrow, per Forbes, but it’s been rebranded with a new name, Student of Life For Life. At the time of writing, there are no major developments to the school, though it’s likely she’s been working on it in the background.
You can watch WeCrashed on AppleTV+—log in or sign up here.
