gwyneth paltrowGwyneth Paltrow has revealed why she was so reluctant to chop off her long Rapunzel-like hair - it was a link to her late dad.

Gwyneth unveiled her new bobbed ‘do during promotional appearances for Iron Man earlier this spring to almost universal praise but she told Harper’s Bazaar recently that it was a difficult decision to cut it off: “I was very, very attached to my hair.

“I grew it when I was pregnant. I still had hair from when my father was alive. I made it like a talisman.

“And then I was ready to let go of it, and so I chopped it off and … aaah!”

Gwyneth’s father, director Bruce Paltrow, died in 2002. She gave birth to daughter Apple in 2004 followed by son Moses in 2006.