June 18 was Father’s Day, and people all over the world took to social media to honor their fathers, including some famous ones.
However, the day is not just about biological fathers; it is also about anyone who is a father figure to you. Like Hollywood actor Kurt Russell, who was honored online by his famous stepdaughter Kate Hudson.
Kurt Russell has been married to Goldie Hawn for nearly four decades. While they’ve never officially married, their romance is one of Hollywood’s longest-running love stories.
Kurt Russell became a father figure to Goldie Hawn’s children with her ex-husband Bill Hudson: her son Oliver and her daughter Kate Hudson, who went on to star in films such as Almost Famous and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
When the couple started dating, Oliver was 6 and Kate was 3, and they revealed on the podcast Sibling Rivalry that Kurt first saw them while they were sleeping.
“Mom said that’s when she fell in love with Kurt – right away was because she brought him back to the house and we had already been asleep, and we shared a room,” Kate said, according to USA Today. “And he sat down next to each of us, he sat down next to you first and watched you sleep and then came by.”
That was the start of a special relationship between Kurt and Goldie Hawn’s children, which grew throughout their marriage.
“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.
Kurt Russell became their full-time father figure as their relationship with their biological father deteriorated. Bill Hudson, according to Kate, “doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall.”
“But I don’t care. I have a dad,” she told Vanity Fair according to ABC News, referring to Kurt Russell.
So Kate was only thinking about one man this Father’s Day.
“Our great loyal protector. Our dependable authentic captain. Our wild, sometimes untamed adventurer father! ” she wrote in an Instagram post.
Many of Kurt’s exciting activities, from “skiing out of helicopters” to “flying in open cockpit planes,” she recalls.
“A childhood and adulthood of adventure,” Hudson wrote. “Our Pa always makes life fun. Always down for exploring, always ready to take on the good life with his family. He’s one hell of a Dad.”
It’s not the first time Hudson has praised her stepfather on social media. Russell recently turned 70, and Hudson paid him a heartfelt tribute.
“He gave me the gift of confidence instilling a knowingness in me that I deserved everything I worked for and I knew that he’d always have my back in whatever challenges may lay ahead,” Hudson wrote.
“When you have a dad who gives you permission to be confident you live courageously.”