Goldie Hawn explained the secret to the success of her 42-year relationship with Kurt Russell, even though they never married

Actress Goldie Hawn and her partner, the unmistakable Kurt Russell, form one of Hollywood's longest-lasting couples. They continue to enjoy their relationship after more than four decades together because of the freedom they offer each other, reports People magazine.

Now 80 years old, the actress won an Oscar for her performance in the film Cactus Flower (1969) in an interview with “The Dan Buettner Podcast” called the secret to making a relationship work in 1983: “freedom.”

“I have a relationship with birds. I'm a bird. And if you leave the cage door open, I might never fly out. But if you close that door, my freedom and my independence, I'd probably pull out all my feathers,” Goldie Hawn said.

The actress described “a freedom of self” as what makes her relationship with Russell, 74, so successful. “It's the freedom of basically not merging into someone else, when you're in harmony on certain levels and you have freedom.”

Hawn and Russell explained why they chose not to marry

The pair, who are parents to Kate and Oliver Hudson, as well as Boston and Wyatt Russell, have each spoken out over the years about their decision not to marry.

“We were constantly being asked, 'When are you getting married? Why aren't you married?'. And we were thinking, 'Why does anyone care?' I asked our kids if they cared. They didn't care. Neither do we,” Russell told Variety in 2023.

In the new interview, Hawn similarly dismissed the idea of ​​marrying Russell. “Even if we got married, it wouldn't make any difference because it's 42 years already,” she said.

Asked why she still casts Russell after 42 years, Hawn replied, “Because I respect him, because I think he's an extraordinary person.”

She also added that she is “also very sexually attracted to him. And that's important. If you have a long-term sexual relationship, that's actually very healthy.”

Russell, she says, is “so smart” and “such a great actor, and I still find him incredibly handsome to this day.” “The kids love him. We're an incredibly happy family most of the time… There's a cohesion. Why would I want someone perfect? ​​There's no such thing,” she stressed.

How Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell met

The two actors first met while filming the live-action Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band from 1968, but it would be another 15 years before they became a couple.

Despite the nearly six-year age difference between them and the fact that they were both determined not to date other actors, Russell made a strong first impression on Hawn.

“I was 21 and he was 16, and I thought he was adorable, but he was way too young,” the actress recounted in 2012. “And then years later we met again and I liked him, and I remember liking him a lot when I first met him, too. But we both said we'd never date another actor, so it just goes to show you that you can never you know”.

Hawn and Russell reunited some 17 years after their first film together, at Russell's casting for the feature film Swing Shift. When Hawn arrived to read the lines with him, a “horribly hungover” Russell got off to “the worst possible start” and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I didn't know Goldie at all other than having worked with her many years before,” he later told TV host Conan O'Brien about meeting Hawn.

“I just didn't know what I was going to see. She had a great body, so the first thing that came out of my mouth was, 'Oh my god, you've got an amazing figure'. It came out quickly and it could have been wrong, but she said, 'Well, thank you.'”