- - Goldie Hawn Says 'Freedom' Is Key to Her 42-Year Relationship with Kurt Russell Without Getting Married (Exclusive)

Jack SmartJanuary 20, 2026 at 8:30 AM

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Goldie Hawn discusses her relationship with longtime partner Kurt Russell on Dan Buettner’s podcast

In a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE ahead of the episode’s Jan. 22 release, the actress says “freedom” is the key to her 42-year relationship’s success

Russell is also “an amazing person” and "my sexual object," Hawn says

Goldie Hawn and partner Kurt Russell continue to remain a strong duo because of the freedom they give each other.

In PEOPLE's exclusive clip from The Dan Buettner Podcast, produced by Andrew Zimmern’s Intuitive Content and distributed by Lemonada Media, the Oscar-winning actress, 80, explains the key to making a relationship that began in 1983 work: "freedom."

“I have a relationship with birds,” says Hawn. “I'm a bird. And you leave the cage door open, I may never fly out. But if you close that door, for my freedom and my independence, I would probably take all my feathers off.”

It’s “a freedom of self,” she says, that makes her relationship with Russell, 74, so successful. “It's a freedom of basically not melding into somebody else, when you're copacetic on certain areas and you have freedom.”

Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell on March 2, 2025

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Hawn and Russell, who are parents to Kate and Oliver Hudson and Boston and Wyatt Russell, have each in the past spoken out about their decision to not marry.

"We constantly got asked, 'When are you going to get married? Why aren't you married?' ” Russell told Variety in 2023. "And we were like, 'Why does anybody care about that?' We'd asked our kids if they cared about it. They didn't. We didn't."

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in 1985

In her conversation with Buettner, Hawn similarly dismisses the notion of tying the knot with Russell. “Even if we did get married, it wouldn't make any difference because it's 42 years now,” says the Death Becomes Her star.

Asked why she keeps choosing Russell throughout those 42 years, Hawn says, “Because I have respect for him because I think he's an amazing person.”

She adds that she’s “also very sexually attracted to him. And that's important. If you have a long-term sexual relationship, that's actually really healthy. He's my sexual object.”

Russell, she says, is “so smart” and “such a great actor, and I find him incredibly handsome to this day. Kids love him. We're an unbelievably happy family — most of the time. … There's a cohesiveness. Why would I want anybody who is perfect? There is no such thing.”

The full episode of Lemonada Media’s The Dan Buettner Podcast featuring Hawn’s interview drops Thursday, Jan. 22, at 10 a.m. PT on YouTube and on podcast platforms.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”