She's one of Hollywood's most beloved stars, but Kate Hudson's relationship with her biological father has been anything but straightforward. Now, in a rare moment of candour, the actress has revealed that after years of distance and very public friction, there may finally be a thaw on the horizon.
Speaking on CBS Sunday Morning in April 2024, Hudson opened up about her bond — or lack thereof — with Bill Hudson, the musician and member of the Hudson Brothers band who she and her brother Oliver were born to during his marriage to their mother, actress Goldie Hawn.
"I still don't really have a relationship with my father, but… it's warming up. It'll be whatever it will be. I have no expectation of that with my father. I just want him to be happy."
A Family Rift That Played Out in Public
The road to any kind of reconciliation has been a long and bumpy one. Bill and Goldie divorced in 1982, and both Kate and Oliver were largely raised by their mother and her longtime partner, Kurt Russell, whom they affectionately call "Pa."
Things boiled over spectacularly in 2015, when Oliver marked Father's Day with a throwback photo of himself and Kate as children alongside Bill, captioning it: "Happy abandonment day…" Bill's response was swift and brutal. He told the Daily Mail that he no longer recognised Oliver and Kate as his children, called Oliver's post "a malicious, vicious, premeditated attack" and declared: "He is dead to me now. As is Kate."
It was a dramatic public rupture — but one that, perhaps unexpectedly, cracked open a door. Oliver later said on Watch What Happens Live that the furore "actually started a dialogue," and that he had re-established contact with Bill after twelve years of silence. "I had posted something that was darkly comedic and it blew up into something," he reflected, "and actually it helped us with our relationship. So now we're kind of keeping in touch."
Kurt Russell: The Dad Who Counts
Whatever the state of affairs with Bill, there has never been any ambiguity about who Kate and Oliver consider their real father figure. Kurt Russell has been a constant presence in their lives since he and Goldie fell in love in 1983 on the set of Swing Shift — a relationship that has endured for over four decades without the pair ever marrying.
Oliver, speaking to Us Weekly in December 2025, was effusive about the man who raised him.
"He's not my blood father, but I have a lot of his mannerisms. He's just got so much life force in him. And when he loves, he loves hard, and when he laughs, he laughs hard."
The blended family also includes Boston Russell — Kurt's son from his previous marriage to actress Season Hubley — as well as Wyatt Russell, Kurt and Goldie's only child together. Kate has spoken warmly about the early days of that family coming together, recalling on the Sibling Revelry podcast that meeting Boston as a child felt like "a big moment" — a sign that her mother was "madly in love" and that a new family structure was taking shape.
No Expectations, Just Hope
What's striking about Kate's 2024 comments is their quiet maturity. There's no bitterness, no score-settling — just a measured, open-hearted acknowledgement that some relationships defy easy resolution. "I have no expectation" is a phrase that speaks volumes about how far she has come in making peace with a complicated situation.
Whether that slow warming with Bill Hudson ever develops into something more meaningful remains to be seen. For now, it seems Kate Hudson is content to let it unfold at its own pace — and to count her blessings in the family she already has around her.
