Kate and Oliver Hudson were young children when their mother, Goldie Hawn, began dating actor Kurt Russell.
At one point, they recalled on their "Sibling Revelry" podcast this week, Russell asked them if they wanted him to formally adopt them. They refused his offer despite their close bond with him.
Tish and Brandi Cyrus were guests on the podcast for Tuesday's episode, and Oliver expressed curiosity at the fact that, although Tish had had Brandi with another partner, Billy Ray Cyrus adopted her after they married.
KATE HUDSON SAYS KURT RUSSELL'S DATING ADVICE IS TO GET GUY ‘WHO PUTS THEIR WORST FOOT FORWARD’
He asked if it was a "big moment" for her before explaining, "I only say this because my dad, he was around for a little bit, then he bailed." Musician Bill Hudson fathered both Oliver and Kate.
Oliver acknowledged he now has a good relationship with Bill, although "it took a long, long, long, long time," but he said that Russell came into his life when he was 5 or 6.
"Essentially, he raised me. … I'm the man I am today because of him," he added. "There was a moment when he asked us, myself and Kate, if we wanted to be adopted, and we said no. Not that we were, you know, very aware of probably what it even f---ing meant. … We just said, 'Well, we don't need it. The love is right there.'
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"At the same time, when you don't have your biological [father] around, it's hard to replace that, no matter what. The love was there with Kurt, no doubt about it. He is my dad. I call him Pa. But there was always, not something missing, but it was always sort of like, ‘Wow, but there’s that other side.'"
Earlier this year, Oliver spoke about a different aspect of his childhood, saying while he was on a psychological retreat designed to identify certain behaviors from one's childhood, he expected to experience negative feelings about his biological father. Instead, he felt "trauma" from Hawn.
"My mother was the one that I had almost the most trauma about, interestingly enough, because she was my primary caregiver," he explained at the time. "I felt unprotected at times. She would be working and away, or she had new boyfriends that I didn’t really like. She would be living her life, and she was an amazing mother.
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"This was my own perception as a child who didn’t have a dad and who needed her to be there, and she just wasn’t sometimes. And she came (up) far more than even my dad who wasn’t there."
His comments about trauma generated a lot of attention, and he later clarified that his comments were "completely taken out of context," taking time to praise Hawn's parenting.
"I don’t know who I would be without my mother," he insisted. "I mean, I really, I can’t even fathom it. The love that I have for her and the respect and the reverence that I have for her is beyond anything."
