Kate Hudson’s Dad: Everything To Know About Bill Hudson & Her Relationship With Kurt Russell

The Oscar-nominated actress has spoken out about her strained relationship with her biological father, while publicly praising her stepdad. Find out more about Kate’s relationships with Bill and Kurt here.

Kate Hudson is known around the world for her roles in such movies as How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days, Fool’s Gold and The Skeleton Key. And let’s not forget her Oscar-nominated performance in Almost Famous playing the irresistible band groupie Penny Lane. While she is most definitely a household name, many fans may be surprised to discover details about her personal life, including her relationships with her biological father, Bill Hudson, and her stepfather, Kurt Russell. Keep reading to find out about more about the father/daughter dynamic, below.

Kate’s Relationship With Dad Bill

Bill first met Kate’s mother Goldie Hawn. on a flight from New York to Los Angeles in 1975. Bill and Goldie would marry on July 3, 1976. They welcomed son Oliver Hudson on September 7, 1976 and Kate on April 19, 1979. The marriage wouldn’t last and Bill filed for divorce on August 15, 1980.

Since then, Bill’s relationship with Goldie and their two children has been strained. In a 2011 interview, Bill slammed Goldie for pitting Oliver and Kate against him once she started dating Kurt. “When we split up, she never had a bad word to say about me,” Bill told the Daily Mail. “But when Kurt came on the scene, the narrative changed and I became the big, bad wolf. I would say to her ‘Goldie, why are you trashing me and saying I’m an absent father when it’s simply not the case?’ and she’d laugh and go ‘Oh Bill, you know it makes for a better story.’”

Kate and Oliver have made references over the years to their estrangement with their biological father. On one Father’s Day, Oliver said “Happy Abandonment Day” on social media, while Kate simply posted a photo of herself and Kurt. However, Kate has made peace with the past.  “I did understand that it didn’t have to do with me and Oliver,” Kate said about Bill being absent during their childhood in an interview Howard Stern in 2016. “I do really recognize that whatever those issues are, are just something that he has to live with, and that must be painful for him. And so I forgive him.”

Kate’s Relationship With Stepdad Kurt

While Kate has spoken out about her estrangement with her biological dad, the actress have nothing but love and respect for Kurt for stepping in as a positive role model, as he and Goldie have been partners for over 38 years. Speaking with Howard Stern, Kate gushed about Kurt helping to raise her. “I have a great family, I have a beautiful mother, I have a stepfather who stepped in and played a huge, huge part in sharing what it is to have a dependable father figure in our life,” she said.

She went on to praise Kurt for always taking time for the family, even though he had to balance his Hollywood career. “I think that people can do a lot of things and they can be very successful and they can still be a really good parent because I was raised that way. Kurt is not a perfect man — no one is. But that trust I got from him in terms of his dependability was just priceless for me”

Meanwhile, Oliver is always one to give credit to Kurt for raising him as one of his own sons. In a 2015 Instagram post on Father’s Day, Oliver shared an adorable photo of the pair, captioning it, “Happy Father’s Day Pa.” And in an interview this past April, Oliver praised Kurt and Goldie. “My parents are amazing grandparents,” he told Us Weekly. “We’re a very tight family. We all live very close to each other. … They’re amazing people, amazing grandparents, amazing parents.”