It’s a clammy, humid day when I arrive at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home in Amagansett. A 7,000sq ft black-tile-clad mansion in the Hamptons, the property is one of several in Paltrow’s portfolio, including an estate in Brentwood, California, and a “tranquil sanctuary” with basement spa in Montecito, Santa Barbara, that she described to Architectural Digest as being her “forever home”. She bought this Long Island property in 2006 with her first husband, the Coldplay frontman Chris Martin; it was also where she married her second, TV writer and producer Brad Falchuk, in a backyard ceremony in September 2018.

“GP will be with you shortly,” I am informed, as a roll of thunder grumbles ominously over proceedings. “She’s in the sauna currently.” Of course she is.

I look beyond the planting overseen by gardener Miranda Brooks towards a wooden structure that frames the far end of the pool and, sure enough, see a figure emerging from a glass-framed room. Unfazed to find a virtual stranger in her garden, Paltrow is still wearing her bathing costume. She goes inside the house, leaving me, like a guest who has turned up several hours before the party, loitering at the garden table. The air hangs with the scent of incipient summer rain.