Back in 1967, a friend told Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In producer George Schlatter, “You’ve got to meet this girl.” At first, George wasn’t convinced. “We’re not using dancers,” he recalls telling Closer. But he took the advice and invited a young, 22-year-old Goldie Hawn to a meeting. She walked into his office, sat in a big, red leather chair, and asked, “What do you want me to do?” George says he instantly fell in love with her charm, even though she wasn’t a traditional comic.
George decided to give Goldie a chance by letting her do introductions on the groundbreaking variety show. The first time she flubbed a line and nervously giggled, something magical happened. From that moment on, Goldie wasn’t allowed to rehearse. Instead, the cameras would capture her authentic reactions. “Ruth Buzzi would always mess with Goldie’s cards,” George recalls fondly. “When Goldie gets confused, she laughs. And her laugh is just golden.”
That genuine laugh took Goldie far. Just two years after her Laugh-In debut, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Walter Matthau’s suicidal girlfriend in Cactus Flower. “Winning the Oscar was a whirlwind for Goldie,” says a close friend. “She was already a household name from the TV show, but now she was officially the It Girl of the era.” But fame came fast, and Goldie barely had time to adjust. “It was a strange and wild ride,” Goldie, now 79, recalls. “I was unsettled, unsure where I was heading. I started seeing a psychologist when I was 21, and I continued therapy for about eight years. It really helped me figure out who I was.”
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The Ups and Downs of Love
In 1969, the same year Goldie won her Oscar, she married her boyfriend of three years, dancer Gus Trikonis. Gus was one of the Sharks in the beloved 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story. “They were young, and her career was just beginning,” says a friend. “But as Goldie’s star rose, their relationship started to drift. They began living separate lives.” Goldie admits she was still figuring out who she was and what she wanted. “I felt like I had drained my bucket. I needed to find myself,” she explains. She didn’t file for divorce until after meeting musician Bill Hudson on a plane in 1975. Goldie married Bill in 1976, and their son, Oliver Hudson, was born later that year. Their daughter, actress Kate Hudson, arrived in 1979.
Despite her dreams of family and marriage, Goldie’s career once again got in the way. “If you ask Bill, he’d say Goldie wasn’t fully invested in their marriage,” says the friend. “But she knew deep down that they weren’t meant to last after their last child was born.”
Goldie also faced challenges with California’s community property laws during her divorces. When she split from Gus, who went on to become a successful director, his lawyer demanded a $75,000 payout. A few years later, in her settlement with Bill, he kept their $2 million Malibu beach house. “Where’s the dignity in all of this?” Goldie reflects. “I’d rather pick up garbage on the street than ask someone for money.”
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell: A Match Made in Hollywood
In 1980, Goldie scored the biggest hit of her career with Private Benjamin, a comedy about a pampered princess who joins the Army to become self-reliant. Goldie received a Best Actress nomination for the film, which she also produced. “I never planned on becoming a producer,” she explains. “I just wanted to create better roles for myself. Private Benjamin was an opportunity to take control of my destiny.”
Transcendental Meditation: Finding Inner Peace
Goldie began practicing Transcendental Meditation in the 1970s and found it a powerful tool for staying calm and grounded. “It gave me a piece of my interior that was all mine,” she explains. “No one could touch it. It was my internal universe, and it’s something I’ve been doing ever since.”
A New Love: Kurt Russell
Goldie met Kurt Russell while filming Overboard in 1987, and it felt like a missing piece of her puzzle finally clicked into place. Kurt, the father of a son, Boston Russell, from his previous marriage, was comfortable and natural around Goldie’s children, who were 6 and 4 at the time. “It wasn’t just because he was sexy and handsome,” she recalls. “It was because he shared my devotion to children being number one.”
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The couple added their son, Wyatt Russell, to their blended family in 1986. They’ve faced challenges, even taking a break at one point, but their relationship has endured. “Goldie and Kurt are soulmates,” says a friend. “Sometimes she says she doesn’t know why it works so well, but they’re good people. They trust each other, let each other be themselves, and they really like each other.”
Family Is Everything
Becoming a grandmother has brought Goldie even more joy. “I love being a grandmother, but I’m not the boss,” she says with a laugh.
