Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna's personal trainer has secret cash troubles

By Katie Nicholl for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 18:15 EST, 13 June 2009

Personal trainer Tracy Anderson has become every A-lister’s best friend ever since Gwyneth Paltrow said she had given her the body she had always dreamed of.

Madonna now works out daily with 32-year-old Miss Anderson, who trains clients using her unique Hybrid Body Reformer machine.

Miss Anderson made a fortune launching a fitness DVD and a chain of gyms in the States with Gwyneth.But she has a troubled financial past which has now come back to haunt her.

Trainer Tracy Anderson

Tracy Anderson's former business partner says the fitness guru contributed to his financial ruin

According to reports in the US, her former business partner Glynn Barber, who built the Reformer, has declared himself bankrupt, claiming she largely contributed to his financial ruin.

Miss Anderson’s publicist last night admitted that the personal trainer was arrested and briefly held at Hamilton County Jail, in her native Indiana, in 2006 over an unpaid bill. 

Last year Miss Anderson was forced to close her fitness studios in the nearby town of Fishers, Indiana, even though many customers were out of pocket after pre-paying thousands of pounds for training sessions. Miss Anderson claims she later reimbursed them.

‘What Tracy did was wrong and my bankruptcy trustees are now dealing with it,’ said Mr Barber.

‘I built two Reformers for Madonna, which I was paid for. But I wasn’t paid for the 12 others I designed and built for Tracy, and they’ve made her a fortune.’

Miss Anderson has revealed that the machines are the secret of her success. She has said: ‘I have worked ten years to create a wonderful product that truly works to transform bodies.’

Gwyneth Paltrow and Tracy Anderson

Work Out: Tracy with Gwyneth Paltrow

A spokesman for Miss Anderson said: ‘As far as we are concerned there is no ongoing legal action between Mr Barber and Miss Anderson. There are no outstanding debts from her businesses in Indiana. She was briefly detained for a few hours on a technicality over a small disputed bill and the closure of Fishers was purely a business decision.’

Gwyneth Paltrow’s husband Chris Martin and her best pal Madonna fear the 36-year-old actress is taking her health regime too far.

She has hired a ‘cleanse doctor’, Alejandro Junger, to keep her in tip-top condition while also running her own lifestyle website, Goop.com, and blogging daily about low-calorie dishes and exotic meat substitutes including ‘Vegenaise’ (vegan mayonnaise).

‘She is obsessive about everything associated with her body,’ says a source.
‘Even Madonna is concerned. Gwyneth has been studying body-cleansing in earnest. She’s read a hundred books and talked to lots of doctors and experts.’


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