Hollywood power couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been in a committed relationship since the 1980s, but the pair never tied the knot.
Goldie, who turns 80 today, and Kurt have been candid about the reasons they famously decided not to marry. For Goldie, the decision was rooted in a desire to make their relationship meaningful beyond a legal contract.
“A lasting relationship isn’t about marriage,” Goldie told Porter magazine in 2015, per E! News. “It’s about compatibility and communication. And you both need to want it to work…Being together, two pillars holding up the house and the roof, and being different, not having to agree on everything, learning how to deal with not agreeing. Everything’s a choice.”
She also shared her thoughts on the potential downsides of marriage with CNN in 2023: “Why should we get married?” Goldie commented. “When it doesn’t work out, it ends up to be big business…How many divorces are fun? How many divorces actually don’t cost money? How many divorces make you hate the person more than you did before? How many divorces have hurt children?”
For Kurt, the commitment they share is the most important thing. During their joint Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in May 2017, he spoke directly to Goldie, saying, “To you, I owe my wonderful life,” he told her, according to Entertainment Tonight. “Simply put, Goldie, I cherish you. And all the stars in the sky or on the boulevard can’t hold a candle to that.”
The pair first met in 1966, during the early stages of their careers. At the time, Goldie was 21, five years older than Kurt, who was 16. Even with the age difference and a mutual agreement to avoid dating fellow actors, Kurt made a lasting impression.
“I was 21 and he was 16 and I thought he was adorable, but he was much too young,” Goldie told Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 in 2012, per People. “Years later, we met up again, and I liked him, and I remembered that I liked him very much when I first met him. But we both said we would never go out with another actor, so it just shows you never can tell.”
Their reconnection came in 1983, during Kurt’s audition for Swing Shift. Kurt was immediately taken with Goldie, though he admitted he stumbled on his first compliment, commenting on her figure.
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To his surprise, Goldie was flattered, and the pair went on their first date soon after, and their romance developed further while filming Swing Shift.
Goldie was already a mother to Oliver Hudson and Kate Hudson, while Kurt had a son, Boston Russell, from a previous marriage.
Goldie once recalled the pivotal moment she realized Kurt was right for her, saying, “What really got me was when I watched my kids when they’d come to the set and how he was with them. He was amazing with them. He was such a natural.”
The couple later welcomed their son Wyatt Russell in July 1986 and collaborated professionally on the 1987 film Overboard.
Over the years, they continued to support each other’s careers while also embracing new chapters of family life, including becoming grandparents.
Kate Hudson’s son, Ryder Russell Robinson, born in January 2004, gave Goldie the chance to experience grandmotherhood alongside Kurt. “I would love to be a grandmother,” she told People in 2003. “I’m not pushing the matter, but it would be so much fun.”
