Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed that while she is working through her high-profile split with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, he came along at the right time to save her life.

In the February issue of Harper's Bazaar UK, Paltrow reflects on her early relationship with Martin. Their courtship began not long after the death of the actresses' famous father, Bruce Paltrow.

"I feel like I would have died somehow if I hadn't met him at that time. I felt like I was going to die of grief," she confides. "I remember waking up, on one particular night, where I felt like I was having a heart attack and I couldn't breathe... I lay on the floor of my apartment in London and I thought, 'I'm not going to survive this.' And he just picked me up and he was so loving and patient through all my grieving."

"He's really great in a crisis. He has incredible empathy when it comes to somebody's pain," Paltrow says of the singer-songwriter. But the Oscar winner also admits that their relationship moved "very fast" and questions whether the then-25-year-old Martin was really ready to settle down.

They married in 2003, and announced their separation in March of 2014.

The Oscar-winning actress describes their current relationship as "a moving, amorphous thing." They interact all the time as co-parents of their children, 10-year-old Apple and eight-year-old Moses.

"It's painful, it's difficult, it might be easier to say, 'I never want to see you again,' but what good does that do anyone?'" she tells the British magazine.

Paltrow adds, "We've made a lot of mistakes, and we've had good days and bad days, but I have to say, I'm proud of us for working through so much stuff together - and not blaming and shaming."

"Of course, there are times when I think it would have been better if we had stayed married, which is always what your children want," she said. "But we have been able to solidify this friendship, so that we're really close."