A sneak-peek into Gwyneth Paltrow's swanky Palm Beach villa

Gwyneth Paltrow’s skin is as radiant in real life as every photo would have you believe. The actor-turned entrepreneur is standing poolside at the Colony Hotel Palm Beach in a floor-length emerald jumpsuit by G Label, the clothing offshoot of her lifestyle brand Goop. She has come to Florida’s most glamorous island to host a dinner celebrating her company’s 15th anniversary. Dusk is falling and the daily chatter of wild parrots has been replaced by a chorus of chirruping crickets. We are discussing her enduring love for Palm Beach, where she used to holiday with her grandparents. "I remember swimming with their friends," Paltrow muses. "At the time, I thought they were old, but they were probably the same age as I am now!" I gaze at her dewy complexion and decide I’d be delighted to turn 51 tomorrow if I could look like that.

I’m not alone. The desire to live in Paltrow’s image is one of the reasons Goop, a one-stop shop for those wishing to emulate the actress, goes from strength to strength. In 2008, Goop was simply a newsletter written from Paltrow’s kitchen table; now, it’s a lifestyle behemoth selling everything from clothes to cutlery, skincare to sex toys. To mark the 15-year milestone, the brand is at last venturing into the world of hospitality with the launch of a two-bedroom villa at the Colony Hotel. Paltrow fans, rejoice! We can finally holiday like her, too.

The location is appropriately swanky. Palm Beach has long been the winter destination for America’s upper crust, and the diminutive sliver of land is home to more than 50 billionaires. When the oil tycoon Henry Flagler came across the island in 1893, he proclaimed it ‘a veritable paradise’, and set about building a railroad and paving over jungle to construct a series of gargantuan hotels. The great and the good of East Coast society soon flocked there for the season.

The Colony Hotel was built in 1947, and has been at the heart of the island’s vibrant social scene ever since, renowned for its traditional high tea on the porch. JFK, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor can be counted among its impressive roster of visitors. The current owner and CEO, Sarah Wetenhall took the helm with her husband in 2016. Keen to update this Palm Beach jewel without losing its rich history and elements of fun, they revamped the 93 bedrooms, decorated the lobby in bespoke de Gournay wallpaper starring a life-size spider monkey, and painted the exterior a delicious shade of pink created in collaboration with Farrow and Ball. "Pink just makes me feel happy," Wetenhall tells me. It certainly brought a smile to my face as I emerged from the taxi into the humid Florida heat following an overnight flight. Eager to get a sense of the island before the Goop Villa was unveiled, after a breakfast of eggs Benedict, I commandeered one of the hotel’s retro pink bikes. (Palm Beach is less than a mile wide, and I’d been told the best way to get around is on two wheels.)

The Colony is in a perfect position, minutes from the beach to the east, but I chose to go west onto Worth Avenue, the island’s renowned shopping street. There was colour at every turn. The windows of Gucci, Chanel, and Ralph Lauren were filled with dresses in a rainbow of fuchsias, aquamarines and neon yellows. In between the boutiques were alleyways paved with tiles, courtyards centred around gurgling fountains, and restaurants with terracotta roofs, tumbling bougainvillea, and white tablecloths that flapped gently in the breeze.

I cycled south, past the gates of Donald Trump’s Maralou resort, which was one of the largest private houses on Palm Beach until it became a members’ club in 1994. The name means ‘sea to lake’ in Spanish, and the 126-room property stretches the entire width of the island. Next, I pedalled north past a harbour filled with super-yachts gleaming in the sunshine before reaching Flagler House, another Gilded Age property, now open as a museum and surrounded by the towering palm-trees that give the island its name. The story goes that a ship carrying coconuts capsized off the coast and locals were so enraptured with the bounty that washed ashore they planted them to grow more. Now, the trees are some of the tallest palms in America. As the sun began to set over the waves, I wandered to the beach for a dip in the surf, then back to the hotel, my pockets heavy with a collection of pale crescent shells found in the silky sand.

That evening, I took the lift down to the bubblegum-pink lobby and was met by a hubbub of excitement. Waiters in Cartier uniforms were handing round tiny bottles of champagne, from which we sipped while browsing a Goop-inspired Net-a-Porter pop-up. I tried on a pair of $1,200 René Caovilla sandals. A woman called Julia Van Nice, who I quickly learned was one of Paltrow’s oldest ‘besties’, greeted me like a long-lost friend. "You look amazing!" she exclaimed, before helping me zip up the back of my dress (I was travelling solo). Within minutes we had swapped numbers, and I thought that, if you judge a person by their friends, then Paltrow must be absolutely lovely.

The Villa itself is a two-bedroom apartment in a 1920s, Mediterranean style manor tucked discreetly behind a hedge. Originally a home for the hotel’s founders, the building has been reimagined into seven residences, all uniquely designed. The location feels quite separate from the whimsical pink paradise of the mothership: here, the neutral colour palette, thoughtful art collection and vintage pieces make it feel more like a chic pied-à-terre than a hotel room. It’s clearly aimed at those who come to Palm Beach for the entire season—you can generally only book it for a month at a time.

The property was designed by the New York-based firm Ronen Lev, which also created the Goop pop-up space in Nantucket, and the whole place feels very Paltrow: beautiful, elegant, expensive. There are nods to Palm Beach’s vivid style—the hallway powder-room is decorated with palm motifs, while butterflies and hummingbirds appear mid-flight on the Fromental wallpaper in the living area and main bedroom. When I admire the striking black and white floor tiles in the master bathroom and shower, my guide Noora Raj Brown, a Goop executive, informs me: "That’s a GP special". Apparently, the actor has the same in her New York and Montecito homes. Naturally, the custom-marble sinks are piled with Goop skincare; there is a private pool and butler; and a concierge service will fill the wardrobes with G Label on request. Any vagina scented candles? "I’m sure we can arrange that," Raj Brown says, with a wink. What is apparently less easy to arrange is a meeting with the actress herself. At the hotel’s alfresco bar, where long tables festooned with flowers await, Paltrow stands with her back to the phosphorescent water. She’s even taller than I had imagined and looks serene, posing politely for photographs. A small crowd gathers in front of her and I hover awkwardly. I’ve travelled thousands of miles to be here and have lots of questions. Does she really prefer Brad Pitt to Ben Affleck? What temperature is her in-home cold plunge pool? And if she only drinks bone broth for lunch, how much? I hover some more, to the PR’s dismay, until I finally catch Paltrow’s eye. Witha movie-star smile, the actress utterly charms me. We speak briefly but cover a lot of ground: global politics; my daughters’ names Margot and Viola—"Two of my biggest roles!" (The former in The Royal Tenenbaums and the latter in Shakespeare in Love)—and, of course, her newest guise as a hotelier. ‘It’s something I’ve always dreamed of,’ she says. "It felt like the perfect opportunity to create a gorgeous space for (the Goop) community to really live and feel our brand’s aesthetic."

Dinner is a family affair, with Paltrow’s uncle Bob, a Palm Beach native, joining for potato-crusted halibut and sticky toffee pudding. He makes an impromptu toast just before the DJ starts up. "Gwyneth has always had great taste," he says. A sentiment with which Goop Villa guests will doubtless heartily agree.