The moment Goldie Hawn fell in love with Kurt Russell: “He matched my devotion”
Having been together for over 40 years, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell are one of Hollywood’s most enduring couples, even if it took until their second encounter for the sparks to truly start flying.
They each took different paths towards achieving sustained success in the industry, even if it was during a crossroads moment for both when they first shared the screen together. At the time, they were nothing more than two actors working together, and neither of them had any inclination they’d end up together.
Russell started out as a Walt Disney-approved child star who made his screen debut kicking Elvis Presley in 1963, but by the end of the decade, he was already a relative veteran after becoming one of the Mouse House’s most in-demand and popular young stars.
Hawn, meanwhile, was five years Russell’s senior but started her career five years later. In fact, her feature debut came in 1968 when she played the pivotal role of ‘Giggly Girl’ in Disney’s musical western The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, where he filled the part of Sidney Bower.
Russell was at the point in his career where he was looking to segue into more challenging and adult-orientated roles, while Hawn was dipping her toes into cinematic waters for the very first time. However, it wouldn’t be long before she made her presence known, winning an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in Cactus Flower, which was released the very next year.
They both went their separate ways, with Russell marrying Season Hubley and welcoming a son, Boston. Hawn would get married twice to Gus Trikonis and Bill Hudson, but both of them were recently divorced when they were cast as the two leads in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 romantic drama Swing Shift.
Growing increasingly close off-set, Hawn recalls the exact moment she knew Russell was the one for her, when he saw him interacting with her children. “What really caught me was that he came over to my place at the beach,” he told Conan O’Brien. “I had my two little children there. I had Oliver and Katie. Katie was about four, just going on, and Oliver was six.”
“I can’t explain it, but he was the one for me,” she continued, with her mind firmly made up. “It wasn’t just because he was sexy and handsome and all those things you get turned on by. It was because he matched my devotion to children to be number one.”
As they say, the rest is history, with Russell and Hawn having been together ever since and have a son together, with Wyatt following in the footsteps of his parents and siblings by helping expand the family into a fledgling acting dynasty.
