Dedicated mother Gwyneth Paltrow tributes motherhood as the factor that eased her pain after losing her father to throat cancer.

"(Apple's) been very healing for all of us - for myself, my brother, my mother," the "Shakespeare In Love" actress said.

Gwyneth gave birth to baby Apple last May, just 18 months after her movie producer father Bruce died of throat cancer, reports celebrity portal Femalefirst.

"For me, the great joy before I gave birth to her was the idea that she would be one quarter my father. I was continuing his life in a small way. It fills a bit of that enormous chasm but it's so sad to think she won't know that incredibly amazing person."