Glaring Red Flags In Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell's Relationship

Even though Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell never got married, they belong to a select list of famous couples who have been together for decades. After more than 40 years as a couple, the actors built a beautiful blended family together. Russell and Hawn share their son Wyatt, but "The Thing" star also played a pivotal role in Oliver Hudson and Kate Hudson's upbringing. While Hawn and Russell have a lot going for them, their relationship was never perfect — and they're reportedly not in a great place today.

For starters, they have often emphasized the sacrifice of giving up other relationships. "Monogamy is a very tough order," Hawn told People in 2017. "You're in the prime of your life, you are attracted to other people, potentially, you have fantasies about that." Accepting this reality was key to the longevity of their relationship. "We're human beings. There is, I guess, an elasticity to the relationship. Otherwise it's going to break, just like a rubber band," she added.

Despite their rhetoric, Hawn and Russell's somewhat unconventional union reportedly caused issues over the years. But beyond their fear of marriage and the problems that came with it, their relationship showed red flags from the beginning. From Hawn and Russell's surprising age gap to the unprofessional approach he used to hit on her and the lack of seriousness he showed when they first met, the couple has displayed warning signs about their romance for a long time. 

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn fell for each other while playing love interests in the 1984 World War II romantic drama "Swing Shift" (seen above). But before they took their romance off-screen, Russell used a questionable pickup line to charm Hawn. He was waiting on set ahead of his audition when he saw the "Private Benjamin" star emerging from another room. Her beauty caught him off guard. "I just didn't have it in my mind what I was going to see," he said on "Conan" in 2017. "And she had a great body."

But instead of keeping his thoughts to himself, he blurted them out to her. "And so, the first thing came out, and I said, 'Man, you got a great figure,'" he shared. Russell knows his approach was inappropriate, but he blamed his actions on a night out with his father. "I was severely hungover," he admitted. He was lucky because Hawn didn't mind his bluntness. She simply said, "Why, thank you," he recalled. Hawn's recollections of that day differed on most aspects except for one.

"Kurt came in, and I looked at him, and he looked like he'd been up all night long," she said on the "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" podcast. In her version, he was nothing but a gentleman, though. "It was so romantic, he turned around and said across the room, 'It's okay if I don't get this part, but I sure would like to see you again," she told O'Brien.

Even though Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell became a couple in the '80s when they were in their 30s, they actually met nearly two decades earlier. In 1966, their paths crossed when they starred on the musical "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band." Russell is five years younger than Hawn, which may not have mattered when their romance started, but very much did when they met. He was a teenager, and she was already an adult.

Even though he was a minor, Hawn still felt chemistry with him. Luckily, she didn't act on it. "I was 21 and he was 16 and I thought he was adorable but he was much too young," Hawn said on Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" in 2012 (via Daily Mail). Russell was so young that he was on set in the company of his mother. But his young age also didn't prevent him from getting butterflies in his stomach. "I thought she was awfully attractive. You couldn't miss her. She just had this energy about her," he told Variety in 2023. 

When they reconnected 17 years later, Hawn looked back on how she felt about the teenager. "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," she said on the radio show. As his hungover shenanigans showed, Russell was also still just as attracted to her as he had been then.

Kurt Russell may now regret complimenting Goldie Hawn's body right off the bat, but he acknowledges that he wasn't exactly trying to be respectful either. When he reconnected with her in 1983, he was in the midst of divorcing Season Hubley, the mother of his oldest son, Boston. Russell and his "Elvis" co-star announced their split that February, and filming for "Swing Shift" began that March. "I was at a time in my life ... where I was very definitely going to put my worst foot forward when it came to any kind of relationship," he said on "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2020.

Luckily for him, Hawn was in a similar place in her life as well. Hawn's divorce from Bill Hudson had been finalized just the previous year. They had split in 1980, just months after their daughter Kate Hudson was born. Making things even less ideal, Hawn had been in a relationship when they met. "I was very attracted to [Russell], [but] I had another, well, he was a French boyfriend," she said on "Conan," likely referring to French actor Yves Rénier.

But their mutual emotional unavailability turned out to play in their favor. Because he wasn't trying to impress and Hawn wasn't trying to be impressed by him, they were their genuine selves early on. "I put my worst foot forward; if you can handle that, then maybe there's a chance of some reality there," Russell said. Hawn clearly could handle him at his worst.

Marriage certainly isn't a prerequisite for a successful relationship. The longevity of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell's romance proves that. However, the way both talk about marriage points to some serious unresolved issues in the relationship department. Hawn, who has been married twice, has gone so far as to claim she and Russell wouldn't have made it as a couple had they tied the knot. "I would have been long divorced if I'd been married," she said on "Loose Women" in 2016.

Hawn argued her autonomy was somehow tied to her single status. "If you need to feel bound to someone, then it's important to be married," she reasoned. "If you have independence, if you have enough money and enough sense of independence and you like your independence, there's something psychological about not being married." Russell has similarly strong feelings attached to their marital status. "The marriage certificate wasn't going to create anything that otherwise we wouldn't have," he told People in 2020.

And, no, they won't change their minds, regardless of how many times they get asked the question. "Forty years isn't enough to finally say, 'Well I guess ...'" he added. Hawn believes that having a wedding would have diminished everything that preceded it. "Ever since we first met, we knew we made a great partnership. It would've seemed unnatural to make a formal commitment when a much deeper one was there from the beginning," she told Australia's Who magazine in 2020.

After decades by each other's side, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell reportedly stopped prioritizing their partnership. "They love each other, there's no doubting that, but they're not working on the relationship like they used to," a source told Closer in 2023. Instead, they have pursued their own interests and allowed the other to do the same. "They've become more and more independent where Kurt does his thing, Goldie does hers," the insider added. "Over the years, they've drifted apart."

This isn't the first time Russell and Hawn are said to have hit a rough patch. In November 2000, the status of their relationship was questioned when Russell was spotted exiting a massage parlor known for offering sexual services. "God knows what Kurt was doing in a place like that," a friend said (via Daily Mail). Hawn was reportedly fuming about Russell's indiscretion. "Goldie's ego was crushed," a source told Closer in 2017. But the insider denied the couple broke up over it, though it certainly caused issues.

"She was furious and devastated. It didn't break them apart, but Goldie never forgot that incident," the source said. However, Hawn attended Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas' wedding alone that same month, further fueling split rumors. Their relationship continued along a difficult path for several years, with Hawn taking a solo trip to India in 2004. "[They] were having trouble communicating," the 2017 Closer insider added. Hawn and Russell reconciled, but if the more recent rumors are to be believed, it didn't last.