Gwyneth's 50s promise 'LIFE JUST GETS BETTER!'

From Hollywood to homebody, she's never been happier

As Hollywood diva Gwyneth Paltrow skates towards her 50th birthday, don't expect the high drama we've come to expect from her blockbuster movies.

The Proof star says she hasn't just accepted her half-century milestone on September 27, she's thrilled by it.

"I'm so surprised and delighted that I'm not freaked out about it because when I was turning 40, I was a mess," confesses the Oscar winner.

"I was so anxious about it. I had, like, grief. It felt really scary and so I thought, 'Oh boy, 50s gonna feel...""

The actress says much of her anguish at the time was for her loss of youth.

"I grieved a lot about the physical part," she explains.

"People make such a big deal that you think, 'Oh, my God, I'm over the hill.'

But in hindsight, she sees her forties as a time when she received "an amazing software upgrade" and she remembers thinking, "This is actually kind of great. I feel like I can be who I am a little bit more and I have permission."

Now on the cusp of 50, she says, "I feel like that, times a hundred."

Born in Los Angeles in 1972, Gwyneth was a silver-spoon baby from the get-go. Her mother was the successful actress Blythe Danner. Her father was Bruce Paltrow, a movie director and screenwriter.

She attended private schools and in her late teens, studied art history at the University of California before dropping out to become an actress.