Kate Hudson has been in the pop culture sphere since 2000, when she starred as Penny Lane in Almost Famous. Since then, she’s starred in a slate of movies (including some amazing rom-coms), launched a fitness brand, and had three kids.
So yes, let’s run down 18 things to know about Kate Hudson.
1. Kate was born in Los Angeles to Jewish actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson.
2. Bill and Goldie divorced when Kate was 18 months old, and she barely knows Bill — she was mainly raised by Goldie and Goldie’s boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell.
“I have a beautiful mother. I have a stepfather who stepped in and played a huge, huge part in sharing what it is to have a dependable father figure in our life,” she said. “But it doesn’t take away from the fact that we didn’t know our dad.”
3. On her spiritual identity, Kate has said, I was raised Jewish, but not a practicing Jew. My mother is a Buddhist, which lends itself to a lot of the spirit world and opening yourself up to everything. I believe in the whole spirit world. I believe in manifestation of energy and I believe we are among something that is greater than we are.
4. In speaking about her 2003 movie Alex and Emma, she said, “I’m Jewish, and The Producers and Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks are my favorites. So realizing that I get to play a German character I was in heaven.”
5. She made her debut in the film Desert Blue in 1998, but her big breakthrough was in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous as Penny Lane, a groupie in the early ’70s music scene. (Er, not a groupie, a “band-aid,” saying in an iconic line: “We. Are. Not. Groupies. We’re here because of the music. We are Band-Aids. We don’t have intercourse with these guys. We support the music. We inspire the music. We’re here because of the music!”)
For her role, she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. Here she is winning in 2001, announced by Tom Cruise:
6. “If you look at Almost Famous, Penny Lane is not a light character. I started my career off playing parts that were interesting,” Kate said. “But I like hopeful characters. I like characters who can cry and laugh at the same time.”
7. She almost starred in 10 Things I Hate About You, but as the movie’s casting director recalls, “The other person I loved was Kate Hudson. But her mom [Goldie Hawn] didn’t like the script for her, so she passed.” Goldie!!! But Kate did star in a bunch of amazing rom-coms, from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) to You, Me and Dupree (2006) and Fool’s Gold (2008).
8. On kissing Matthew McConaughey: “The thing is, every time I kiss McConaughey, it’s like, I mean, it’s like there’s just something happening and there’s like snot or wind, or things are just… like when we were kissing in the end of Fool’s Gold, we’re like in the ocean, we like had the plane crash. He just had snot all over his face.”
(FWIW, McConaughey agrees that their on-screen kisses are bad: “So many of our… Kate and I’s kisses have been awkward. We’re still like, hey, can we ever get a kiss where it’s just like the temperatures, right? The ocean’s not wiping us away? Nobody’s dropping stuff on us, above our head?”)
9. In 2013, she launched Fabletics, an athleisure brand. “I work more on Fabletics now than I do on movies,” she said in 2018.
10. On dealing with stress, she meditates. “Meditation has been the most helpful and life-changing thing for me. You can feel the difference when you meditate on a regular basis. At least I can…. I started practicing [transcendental meditation] a year and a half ago so I meditate 20 minutes in the morning and I try to do another 20 minutes in the afternoon. This is the first time I’ve made it a point to meditate every day.”
11. A quick rundown of Kate’s romantic life: In 2000, she married musician Chris Robinson, and they had a son, Ryder Russell, in 2004. They divorced in 2006. In 2011, she became engaged to musician Matt Bellamy; their son, Bingham Hawn, was born the same year. They ended their engagement in 2014.
12. In 2016, she started dating musician and actor Danny Fujikawa. She first met Danny when she was 23, but they went on their first date when she was 36.
“We’ve known each other for 15 years. He’s my best friend’s stepbrother,” she said. “We kinda skipped through the part of knowing what the hiccups were. You kinda skip the part of going, ‘Oh, you’re like that?’ “In terms of family, I’ve known his family forever. To have that connection is really powerful.”
13. And yes, she knows her romantic history is all musicians. “I would like to say they’re attracted to me,” Kate said. “I’m attracted to musical people, period. From the outside, yeah, I get it. ‘Oh, I like a rock star,’ or whatever. But that’s not really what it is. The reason I connect so deeply with musicians…is because we all connect to music in a way that you don’t have to explain. You just feel it, and it’s something you love.”
14. In 2018, Kate and Danny welcomed daughter Rani Rose Hudson Fujikawa. Here’s the whole beautiful blended fam:
15. Speaking of music, in 2012, she joined Glee in a recurring role as a dance teacher. She got some of her own numbers:
“Yeah, [I had] nerves, but [I was] more excited I think because it’s like being a little kid again,” Kate said of doing Glee. “Doing all three – singing and dancing and acting and I love it. I just love it!”
16. And yes, Kate Hudson sings. She was in the musical film Nine where she sang “Cinema Italiano“:
And she’s in Sia’s controversial film Music, for which she earned a Golden Globe nod. Of the film, she said, “Creating it with Sia was healing in so many ways. It was almost like someone giving me permission to say, ‘You’ve earned this opportunity to express yourself through this..’ I’ve worked through it, and I feel more confident. Now I get excited about singing…and I don’t have any expectations of what I want it to look like.”
17. She has a podcast with her brother, Oliver, called Sibling Revelry. “Oliver is into fishing, and I’m more into ashwagandha.” They release new episodes week.
18. In 2020, Kate, her mom Goldie, and her daughter Rani were on the cover of People’s Beautiful issue. L’dor v’ador, baby!
