Gwyneth Paltrow felt "extra shame" that her relationship with Brad Pitt ended.

The 53-year-old actress met her former fiancé in 1994 on the set of Se7en and they got engaged in 1996, but she was "so bummed" when they separated in June 1997, and their split was made even harder because of the public scrutiny they had faced throughout their romance.

Speaking on Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco's podcast, Friends Keep Secrets, she said: "I think the press aspect and all that makes it feel larger than life in a way.

"You have to carry this faux cultural importance piece, this extra burden and this extra shame that it didn't work out."

Gwyneth - who has children Apple, 22, and Moses, 20, with ex-husband Chris Martin and is now married to Brad Falchuk - was around 22 and Brad was 31 when they first met and fell in "love at first sight".

She said: "I met him on set and like we had like kind of a love at first sight thing. It was pretty awesome. It was really fun."

However, while the couple were very happy together, the Goop founder admitted things could be "overwhelming" because she was being recognized as Brad's girlfriend as her acting career grew.

She said: "I was just young, and we were working all over different parts of the world."

Asked if their romance felt more "like a fantasy than a reality", she added: "There was an aspect of it that was very heady.

"I was very young and he was this beautiful movie star."

The Marty Supreme star is still friends with Brad, now 62.

She said: "[He's a] great guy and I love him."

Gwyneth previously reflected on her split with Brad, admitting she had called off their engagement because she wasn't ready to get married, though she was still "totally heartbroken when we broke up."

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast in 2023, she said: "It was the right thing at that time, but it was really hard.

"There were a number of things that had happened, he was nine years older than me -- he knew what he wanted, he was ready to do it and I was kind of all over the place.

"So it was really one of those difficult things, where I felt like, 'Oh my God, not only am I not ready, I'm not living up to the standards again.' It was a familiar refrain I felt about myself."