There are first dates, and then there’s Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s first date: a movie premiere, dancing at The Playboy Club, and breaking into Hawn’s new home only to be interrupted mid-coitus by the police. “It was a lot of fun, I’ll tell you what,” Russell divulged during an appearance on Harry. “I can’t believe it was a long time ago.”
How long ago? Forty years, to be exact—and the couple is still going strong. Though they’ve never officially tied the knot, the two have stuck by each other’s sides through thick and thin: work, child-rearing, aging, and much more. “It’s not about the marriage,” Hawn told People in 2020. “It’s about the people and the relationship, and the will to stay together. And that’s a big one because if you want it, you can have it. You’ve got to give things up, but the joy and the excitement of being together and touching the toes of somebody at night is really a nice feeling.”
In other words, it seems both stars view love as a choice—and they definitely keep choosing each other. For more about one of the greatest Hollywood romances of all time, here’s a timeline tracing Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s inspiring love story through the ages.
1966: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell meet
Who would have thought it would be the live-action Disney movie The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band that would brought these two powerhouses together? In 1966, Hawn’s star was still rising thanks to her role in the sketch comedy series Rowan Martin s Laugh-In, and Russell was transitioning from a child actor to more grown-up roles.
During their initial meeting, there wasn’t exactly an immediate spark. “I was 21 and he was 16 and I thought he was adorable but he was much too young,” Hawn told the BBC Radio 4 program “Desert Island Discs” in 2012. “And then 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.”
1983: Reconnecting on the set of Swing Shift
When Hawn and Russell started working together on the film Swing Shift, they were each in a very different place in their lives. Hawn had divorced her first husband, musician Bill Hudson, and was focusing on her children, Oliver and Kate Hudson. Russell had also recently ended a long-term relationship.
Still, that didn’t stop Russell from making the first move—or using a tragically bad pick-up line. “I was severely hungover…and I didn’t know Goldie at all outside of having worked with her many years before,” Russell recalled to Conan O’Brien in 2017. “I just didn’t know in my mind what I was going to see. [Goldie] had a great body, and so the first that came out was ‘Man, you got a great figure.’ And it kind of came out quickly and it could’ve been wrong and she said, ‘Why, thank you.’”
1984: They officially start dating
Their relationship got serious rather quickly. For Hawn, the clincher was seeing Russell’s tenderness with her two children. “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,” Hawn told People in 2017.
This was when the pair began stepping out together in public.
1986: The couple welcome son Wyatt Russell
After a few years of dating, Hawn and Russell welcomed their first and only child together, a son they named Wyatt. Their new addition joined an already robust blended family: Hawn’s two children, Oliver and Kate, and Russell’s son Boston from his previous marriage to Season Hubley.
The love between the clan is evident in the way they talk about each other. Kate, who calls Russell “Pa” and was just three years old when they met, shared this tribute on Instagram in honor of his 64th birthday: “No matter what he was doing in his busy life, he always showed up. Not because he had to but because there was no other place on earth he would rather be than with his family. We felt the purity of that our whole childhood and my gratitude for his love is immeasurable.”
1987: Going Overboard together
If this is the film that kicked off your love affair with Hawn and Russell, you’re not alone. In the charming (if outlandish) romantic comedy, the on-screen chemistry between the duo sizzles. Hawn plays a wealthy socialite who falls off of a yacht and loses her memory; Russell plays a rough-around-the-edges carpenter who tricks her into believing she is his wife. It is memorable, to say the least.
Apparently it was memorable for the real-life couple as well. In 2020, Hawn says she broke her own rule about not rewatching her old films when Overboard came on unexpectedly. “Kurt and I were actually in bed and we were getting ready to snuggle and the TV was on,” she recounted to Andy Cohen on What What Happens Live. “It was us! It was us in Overboard…So the two of us forgot what we were gonna do, and we ended up watching the movie. It was so fabulous…how we started looking at what we did together. It was great!”
1990s: Forging their own path
Over their many decades together, Hawn and Russell have often been questioned about their decision not to get married. While the ‘90s were the heyday of high-profile celebrity weddings and even bigger divorces, Hawn and Russell have said they never felt the need to formalize their relationship through marriage—especially since both have been married and divorced before. “Why should we get married? Isn’t that a better question?” the actress told CNN’s Chris Wallace in 2023.
2000s: Keeping their personal lives private
Over the next two decades, Russell and Hawn kept their personal life relatively low-profile while continuing to work on their respective careers. Kurt was known for his roles in Captain Ron (1992), Tombstone (1993), and Escape from LA (1996), among others. Hawn made notable appearances in films like Death Becomes Her (1992), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Banger Sisters (2002).
2010s: Enduring inspiration
It is no surprise that the romance of Russell and Hawn have become a point of cultural obsession. Interviewers regularly ask about their relationship; everyone seems to want to know the secret of their enduring love.
Their children included: “You and Pa have been together for so long and sometimes I look at it and I’m like, ‘How do you guys do it?’” Kate admitted to Hawn in an interview with People. “I’m still working on that.”
The two “complement each other so well,” Kate also said. “Mom is kinetic and she is a butterfly, and Pa likes his family and his home. But when they’re together, it’s so powerful.”
2017: Matching Hollywood stars
It’s always an honor to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but there is something especially sweet about Russell and Hawn’s love being immortalized with side-by-side stars.
During the double-star ceremony, Russell gave an impassioned speech about his life partner. “There’s no one else I’d rather be next to for all of that than Goldie.” He added, “Goldie, to you, I owe my wonderful life. Simply put, Goldie, I cherish you.”
2018: Major milestone
Though very few famous couples make it multiple decades, the two admit it has taken a lot of hard work and dedication. “Look, I’ve said this for 34 years, I don’t think Goldie and I, in real terms, are any different than any other couple; we go through all the same things,” Russell explained to People ahead of their 35th anniversary. “But the important thing of who the two people are in a relationship is what you have to deal with. There’s gonna be ups and downs and sideways and everything else…I just think after 34 years you’re gonna have experienced every emotion that you can together.”
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2021: Costars again
Like everyone else, the two spent the pandemic taking a lot of masked strolls. But that didn’t stop them from entertaining themselves: according to Instagram, there was a lot of tickling and shimmying at home. “I like to dance with Goldie every once in a while, but I can’t tell you how little I care about social media,” Russell admitted to the New York Times.
In 2021, the two also came together again on-screen, reviving their roles as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles 2. “I thought we’d work together much sooner than this, but Goldie and I are pretty choosy. And generally, Goldie Hawn movies and movies that Kurt Russell is in are pretty different things,” Russell said in the same interview. “It’s not mandatory just because you live with someone, you love someone and you enjoy working together that you should do 10 or 15 movies together.”
Hawn agreed that making films together is still a joy: “The really fun part was that it was just the two of us in the makeup trailer. We were always right next to each other.”
2024: Still in love, 40 years and eight grandkids later
Over the last decade, the couple has welcomed eight grandchildren: Kate’s three kids (Ryder Russell Robinson, Bingham Hawn and Rani Rose); Oliver’s three kids (Bodhi Hawn, Wilder Brooks and Rio Laura); and Wyatt’s two sons (Buddy Prine and Boone Joseph). “It’s getting more and more exciting because as they get older, it just becomes more and more fun,” Russell mused to Parade about his grandkids in 2023. “We’ve got a good bunch.”
That “good bunch” often makes visits to the couples’ home in Los Angeles, which members of the family—including Hawn—often share on Instagram. “A good family is the answer to happiness. I look at our kids and grandchildren and there’s nothing in the world that could make me as proud as I am of all of them,” Hawn recently told Australian Woman’s Day.
Gratitude, is something Hawn practices daily—in fact, as she previously told Vogue, it is one of her best beauty tricks: “I just think of three things I’m grateful for, just three,” she said, adding that her family is always one of the three. Then, “when you get up, you say ‘I’m going to have a really good day today, no matter what—even when we have problems, even when we have sadness, even when we have fear, this is going to be a good day.” Sounds like the secret to happiness—and a long lasting relationship—indeed.