Gwyneth Paltrow Got Caught Having Sex With Ben Affleck on Set

As outlined in a new biography about Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress’s sex life with former boyfriend Ben Affleck was apparently hot and heavy—so much so that, according to the book’s author Amy Odell, they couldn’t keep their hands off of one another, even on set.

In Gwyneth: The Biography, out July 29, on the set of Shakespeare in Love—the film that Paltrow would win an Oscar for—Paltrow and Affleck “were openly affectionate and occasionally indiscreet,” Odell wrote. “One day, a crew member went to fetch Gwyneth from her dressing room. The door was ajar, and the runner knocked and entered without waiting for a response, at which point he glimpsed Gwyneth in an intimate moment with Ben, who heard the runner and said, ‘Not now.’” (Affleck, too, starred in the 1998 film.)

Paltrow and Affleck were on-and-off before their final breakup in October 2000; according to an old friend of Paltrow’s, Affleck may have cheated on her and was “not a good boyfriend,” the book reported.

“Ben was not a good guy,” a friend told Odell, adding that, though Affleck wasn’t a great partner, Paltrow “was always a good girlfriend to her boyfriends.”

“He’s his own worst enemy,” the friend added. “He just has so many demons.” Paltrow—drawn to his intellect and captivated by their physical chemistry—said after they broke up, “I love men, even though they’re lying, cheating scumbags.”

Paltrow spoke openly during their relationship about “how much she enjoyed their sex life,” Odell wrote, telling makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin in a London hotel room one day after lunch that she loved when Affleck performed a certain sexual act on her. In 2001, per the book, she told Harper’s Bazaar, “I’m a very sexual person,” and in a 2024 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Paltrow told host Alex Cooper that Affleck was a “technically excellent” lover.

For his part, Affleck said Paltrow was “the smartest woman [he’d] ever met.”