Paltrow: Martin no-show isn't a bad sign

Gwyneth Paltrow fought off reports her marriage to Chris Martin is in trouble, after she failed to show up with him at the Oscars - she was just sticking to her red carpet date rule.

British tabloids have been reporting the couple are struggling to balance married life, parenthood and their busy professional lives, but the actress insists there's nothing wrong.

And her decision not to take her husband to the Academy Awards is in keeping with her bid to keep her private life private.

Speaking exclusively to Oprah Winfrey's roving reporter and friend Gayle King backstage at the ceremony on Sunday, the Oscar-winner said: "You see people sort of get together and break up and it always seems like the ones who are the most public with it sort of suffer the most publicly if it doesn't work out...

"It just seems like it invites the whole world in and I just prefer to not do it that way."

And of the press reports that all is not well at home, Paltrow insisted: "We're a happy household."