Nobody sends virtual birthday love like Kate Hudson!
Especially when it comes to the man she considers her father, Kurt Russell. On Wednesday, she wished the actor (and longtime partner of her mom, Goldie Hawn) a happy 70th with a sweet throwback family photo and an "insta love letter":
"I'm gonna gush cause I don’t often about this man but I figure since today he turns 70 I’m gonna let it out," she wrote in the caption. "Plus he’ll never see this. 😂 I often wonder how different our life would have been if he never entered the picture. How different I would be."
Hudson's dad is actor Bill Hudson, but Russell and Hawn, 75, have been together for most of her life, and she's been open about considering him her "Pa."
She continued in her letter:
"Let me fill you in. He's a pick up your boot straps kinda dad. Don't cry, shake it off you’re ok, kinda dad. Don't let 'em push you around you got this, kinda dad. Don't listen to the noise you’re doing great, kinda dad. Shake those hips like no ones watching, kinda dad. Always get back on the horse, kinda dad. Never miss a show or game, kinda dad. Kids before anything, kinda dad. Work hard play hard, kinda dad. My girl can rule the world, kinda dad. His laugh will echo through generations as powerful as his concocted stories of grandeur that may or may not be true (may we never know)."
Russell and Hawn (both of whom were divorced before connecting) paired up 38 years ago, after working together on the 1984 comedy "Swing Shift," but have always said they had no intention of getting married to one another. "Marriage didn't work for either one of us," Hawn told TODAY in 2020. "I'm not saying that it wouldn't work again, but I didn't think that we really needed to get married."
Instead, they shared parenting duties with their children: his son, Boston Russell, 41; her kids, Oliver, 44, and Kate, 41; and their shared son, Wyatt Russell, 34.
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Hawn posted her own 70th-birthday wishes to Russell on Instagram Wednesday, featuring a clip of the two of them bantering about the fact that they aren't married while presenting the best director award at the 1989 Oscars:
"Happy birthday baby!" she wrote. "What a wild ride. No, we never got married but one thing that continues to grow is our love. You’re a wild one, brilliant, lovable, childlike, perfectly maddening, a father supreme and deeply funny! I can’t imagine my life without you at any age, Kurt Russell. You’re the catch. And you’re all mine."
In her own post, Hudson described Russell as "an original. One of kind. A powerful, intelligent, talented, loyal family man. He has taught me that we can all exist with immense love through our differences. And his dedication to my mother and their fight for love forever is as admirable as it gets. I love this man so much!"
This isn't the first time she's had a "gush" over Russell; earlier this month she posted a "real cute" picture of Hawn and Russell sharing a smooch, while in 2019 during her podcast (with Oliver), "Sibling Revelry," she recalled a sweet story of how her mom and Russell came home from a date early on in their relationship and he helped her check on the sleeping kids.
It's an admiration and love that continues today. As Hudson concluded in her letter, "A note for all dads of girls. 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. When you have a dad who gives you permission to be confident you live courageously. And that’s my insta love letter to my dad who has lived 70 years today. Happy Birthday Pa. How bout we give some big Hip Hip Hoorays to this wild man!"
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