Gwyneth Paltrow suggests that she popularized face masks and was 'one of the first' to contract COVID-19

• Gwyneth Paltrow suggested that she popularized face masks.
• The actor posted a selfie wearing a face mask last February.
• Paltrow caught COVID-19 last year and said she was still dealing with long-term symptoms.

Gwyneth Paltrow suggested during an interview with The New York Times that she popularized the practice of wearing a face mask and claimed to be "one of the first" to contract COVID-19.

The 48-year-old actor turned wellness guru posted a selfie to Instagram wearing a face mask in February 2020, about one month before many countries began to impose travel restrictions as the virus began to spread rapidly. Asked about that selfie by The Times, she said: "This is a familiar pattern in my life. I do something early, everyone is like: 'What is she doing? She's insane.' And then it's adopted by the culture."

She continued: "I had to take this trip to France when it was all kicking off. I wore it on the plane, but I didn't wear it to the function that I was going to, and actually ended up getting Covid and coming home, and being one of the first people that I had heard of to have it."

Last week in a personal essay posted on her Goop website, Paltrow said she had been experiencing long-term COVID-19 symptoms including ongoing fatigue, brain fog, and inflammation.

"I had COVID-19 early on, and it left me with some long-tail fatigue and brain fog. In January, I had some tests done that showed really high levels of inflammation in my body," she wrote before saying she had adopted a combination of intermittent fasting and a plant-based ketogenic diet to try to curb the symptoms.

She continued: "Everything I'm doing feels good, like a gift to my body. I have energy, I'm working out in the mornings, and I'm doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing."

In 2018 during an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Paltrow made similar comments claiming to have popularized yoga. "I remember when I started doing yoga and people were like: 'What is yoga? She's a witch. She's a freak,'" she said.

"Forgive me if this comes out wrong, but I went to do a yoga class in LA recently, and the 22-year-old girl behind the counter was like, 'Have you ever done yoga before?' And literally I turned to my friend, and I was like, 'You have this job because I've done yoga before.'"