Pitt, Paltrow in 1996

New York ? Gwyneth Paltrow says the publicity of Brad Pitt’s breakup with Jennifer Aniston could have been avoided.

“It would have been a lot easier on Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston now if they had not talked to the press about each other and everything to begin with,” Paltrow says in this week’s Time magazine, currently on newsstands.

The 32-year-old actress went through heavy tabloid coverage herself when she dated Pitt in the nineties. She and Pitt broke off their engagement in 1997.

“I learned my lesson at 24,” Paltrow says of the public relationship.

Paltrow, now married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, values her privacy. The couple have a 1-year-old daughter, Apple.

“Our marriage is between us,” she says. “If we decide to continue being together or not, it’s our business.”

Last week, a California judge signed off on the divorce of Aniston and Pitt. After being married for 4 1/2 years, Aniston told Vanity Fair, “The sad thing, for me, is the way it’s been reduced to a Hollywood cliche – or maybe it’s just a human cliche.”

The reverberations have continued to play out weekly in tabloids with frequent speculation on the love life of each. While the fame of Pitt and Aniston may be at a peak, Paltrow sounds almost ready for quiet retirement.

“Everything I wanted to achieve, I achieved,” says Paltrow. “I’m not one of those people who keeps raising the bar.”