'Happy birthday my brother': Gwyneth Paltrow's happy birthday message to ex husband

Paltrow shared a rare photo of her children, with ex-husband Chris Martin. Photo / Instagram

Gwyneth Paltrow has taken to social media to wish her ex Chris Martin a happy birthday.

The Coldplay singer turned 41 on Friday and the actress marked the occasion by sharing a rare picture of the two of them with their children Apple, 13, and Moses, 11.

She referred to her former husband as her "brother".

She wrote: "Happy birthday my brother. Thank you for giving me these two."

The 45-year-old star was married to Martin from 2003 until they famously "consciously uncoupled" in 2016, the Daily Mail reports.

Paltrow is now engaged to Brad Falchuk; he turned 47 on March 1.

View this post on Instagram

Happy birthday my brother. Thank you for giving me these two. 💖

A post shared by Gwyneth Paltrow (@gwynethpaltrow) on Mar 2, 2018 at 11:33am PST

She shared a shirtless picture of Brad, along with the caption: "Happy birthday - you are the grounding force, the epitome of love and kindness. Thank you for being my beacon."

Martin is dating now Dakota Johnson, 28.

Paltrow recently told "Entertainment Tonight" that while the exes have remained on friendly terms since their high-profile split, it hasn't always been easy.

She said: "I think that's probably a big misconception about me or my life that things come easily or are easy, and it's just not true.

"It's been really a process to get to the point where we can all be together and luckily I have a deeply loving ex-husband, who's very open minded, and we've been able to create something. It's for the kids. You don't want your kids to suffer."

And Gwyneth admitted that, in a perfect world, she would have remained married to Chris.

The actress explained: "Obviously if I could have stayed married to the father of my kids, that's kind of the dream, but it didn't work out for me. So you have to adapt and learn, learn your lessons and move on, and that's what we're trying to do."