Gwyneth Paltrow, 51, says she is about to have a ‘nervous breakdown’ over becoming an empty nester as son Moses, 18, is heading to college… after Apple, 19, left 2 years ago

Gwyneth Paltrow is about to enter a new phase of life and she’s not exactly looking forward to it.

When her youngest child, son Moses Martin, 18, heads to college in the fall the Shakespeare in Love actress, 51, will officially be an empty nester.

‘It’s kind of giving me a nervous breakdown, if I’m honest,’ she admitted during the keynote panel at the In Goop Health Summit over the weekend covered by The Hollywood Reporter.  

‘I started being like, “Oh my God, and I need to quit my job and I need to sell my house and I need to move.” It’s sort of putting things into turmoil,’ she added.

Sending kids off to college – daughter Apple Martin, 19, is already a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee – is something most parents can relate to.

When her youngest child, son Moses Martin, 18, heads to college in the fall the Shakespeare in Love actress, 51, will officially be an empty nester

‘My identity has been being a mother. Apple’s going to be 20 in May. So I’ve oriented my whole life around them and their schedules and when school starts,’ she explained.

‘You start to let go in increments when they’re driving themselves around or doing certain things. It is a slower process.’

She added: ‘I feel really lucky because I have a close group of mom friends and we all raised our kids alongside one another. So we’re kind of in it together.’

Moses will be enrolling in Brown University in the fall and Rhode Island is a long way from Los Angeles. 

So the mom of two has been doing some reading on empty nest syndrome and healthy ways to let your kids go off and build their own life. 

‘Psychologist-astrologist Jennifer Freed said, “I would like you to think of it as being free birds instead of having an empty nest.” And that resonates,’ she said.

‘Instead of creating a sense of loss – what if I were free? And I could say yes to a girls’ weekend, because I didn’t feel guilty. That kind of thing,’ she added.

Moses’ pending departure has been heavy on the Shallow Hal star’s mind in recent interviews in which she’s described motherhood as something that’s made her ‘so defined and so fulfilled.’

‘On the one hand, incredible sadness. A deep sense of impending grief. On the other hand, this is exactly what should be happening,’ is how she explained her feelings about Moses going to college to The Sunday Times.

‘It’s kind of giving me a nervous breakdown, if I’m honest,’ she admitted during the keynote panel at the In Goop Health Summit over the weekend covered by The Hollywood Reporter

‘I started being like, ‘Oh my God, and I need to quit my job and I need to sell my house and I need to move’

It’s sort of putting things into turmoil,’ she added

Sending your kids off to college s something most parents can relate to

Daughter Apple Martin, 19, is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee

And she won’t be going through it alone, either. Her husband Brad Falchuck’s son Brody will also be heading off to college in the fall.

‘It’ll be interesting to see how the morning routine changes with no kids in the house,’ she said. 

Gwyneth shares Apple and Moses with her ex-husband Chris Martin. 

Brad shares Brody and his daughter Isabella, 19, who is a student at Cornell University.