Gwyneth Paltrow Says Chris Martin 'Comes and Sprinkles Fairy Dust’ as a Co-Parent (Exclusive)

Gwyneth Paltrow is grateful for a good co-parenting relationship.

Speaking with PEOPLE about her brand Goop's latest venture into beauty, good.clean.goop, the 51-year-old mom of two celebrated her co-parenting relationship with ex-husband Chris Martin, with whom she raises son Moses, 17, and daughter Apple, 19.

"He has this sweet child-like spirit, and I love that he will be like, 'Let's go jump in the ocean," when it's 58 degrees,' or, 'Let's go to this weird guitar store.' He always wants to do these fun adventures with them and activities."

Paltrow also admired how the Coldplay frontman "has a real sweetness. And so he brings that to the way that he parents them ... He's sort of gone a lot, he's on the road a lot, but he brings — it's almost like he comes and sprinkles fairy dust."

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While the decision for the two to split was never an easy one for either, Paltrow says that they were on the same page about prioritizing their kids.

"I just always say, to say you want to put your kids first and actually to put them first are two different things. I think we all think we want to put our kids first, but when it's sort of ... you're making a sacrifice or you feel angry or hurt, sometimes it's hard to do that."

Paltrow recalls researching divorce as they went through it and talking to family and friends, saying, "Everybody who had come from a divorced house, they said, 'It wasn't really the divorce. Of course, it was hard to go back and forth to different houses, but that wasn't really the thing that messed me up. It was that my dad wouldn't come into the house to pick us up, or my mother would drop us at the end of the driveway or they couldn't even be together at graduation.'"

"Those were the things that really hurt the kids," she continues. "And so Chris and I just said, 'Let's just never do that and let's try to get through the hard part of this and remember our friendship.'"

The two are proud of the fact that "we've been able to do that," with Paltrow adding, "He's like my family."

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