Did Chris Martin Just Compare Marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow to Auschwitz?

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By Maia Efrem November 9, 2015

Breaking up is hard to do. It’s even harder when your ex-husband compares being married to you to life in a concentration camp.

Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but that’s kind of what Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said about his 12 year marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow.

During a radio appearance on the Rove & Sam show on Monday morning, the rocker about his much talked about “conscious uncoupling” from Paltrow:

“A few years ago I was in a low place in my life and was feeling kind of down and confused. Some friends gave me a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning,” and a poem called “The Guest House” by an Afghanistani poet… and those two things started me off on this whole journey that’s ended up a few years later now where I just feel so happy to be alive.”

Image by Getty Images

If the book title sounds familiar that’s because it’s Viktor Frankl’s award-winning account of his World War II experiences and survival through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Frankl approaches psychological healing as a journey in which one finds a purpose in life to feel positive about.

Sure, it must be real hard to survive on Goop juice cleanses , but Martin’s comparison is more than a little off. Gwynnie, on the other hand, has had nothing but positive things to say about her ex-husband in the press.

Maia Efrem is the former research editor and assistant to the editor and was also responsible for the Forward’s annual Salary Survey. Previously she served as the editor of Blognik Beat, a blog written by students who emigrated from or have ties to the Former Soviet Union. Maia is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

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