After more than four decades together, Goldie Hawn says commitment doesn’t come from obligation — it comes from connection, attraction, and mutual respect.

According to Fox News, the 80-year-old actress reflected on her enduring relationship with longtime partner Kurt Russell during an appearance on “The Dan Buettner Podcast”. 

In a clip obtained by People magazine, Hawn was asked why she continues to choose Russell, 74, year after year, prompting a candid explanation about what has kept their bond strong.

“Because I have respect for him because I think he’s an amazing person,” Hawn said. She added that she remains “also very sexually attracted to him.”

“And that’s important,” she continued. “If you have a long-term sexual relationship, that’s actually really healthy. He’s my sexual object.”

Hawn has spoken openly in the past about the role intimacy plays in sustaining a long-term partnership. In a 2024 interview with E! News, she said physical closeness creates far more than romance.

“You have to have good sex,” Hawn said at the time. “Because sex is something that connects you and creates more belonging. People who have healthy sexual relationships usually last a lot longer. But it’s not just because of the act, it’s because of the warmth and the intimacy that it creates.”

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The couple’s history stretches back to 1966, when they first met while co-starring in the comedy musical western “The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band”. Hawn was 21. Russell was just 16.

Years later, Hawn recalled her first impression of Russell during a 2012 interview with BBC Radio 4, saying she found him “adorable, but much too young.”

Their relationship didn’t turn romantic until they reunited professionally on the 1983 film “Swing Shift.” Their chemistry soon became undeniable, and audiences later embraced them in the 1987 romantic comedy “Overboard”.

In 1986, Hawn and Russell welcomed son Wyatt, now 39. Russell also helped raise Hawn’s daughter Kate, 46, and son Oliver, 49, from her previous marriage to singer Bill Hudson, 76. Russell shares son Boston, 45, with his ex-wife, actress Season Hubley, 74.

Despite their decades-long relationship, the couple has consistently chosen not to marry.

In a 2020 interview with People magazine, Russell explained their reasoning.

“For people like US, the marriage certificate wasn’t going to create anything that otherwise we wouldn’t have,” he said.

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Russell revisited the topic in a 2023 interview with Variety, questioning the public’s fascination with their decision.

“We constantly got asked, ‘When are you going to get married? Why aren’t you married?'” he said. “And we were like, ‘Why does anybody care about that?'”

“We’d asked our kids if they cared about it,” Russell added. “They didn’t. We didn’t.”

Hawn echoed those sentiments on Buettner’s podcast.

“Even if we did get married, it wouldn’t make any difference because it’s 42 years now,” she said.

She described “freedom of self” as the foundation of their relationship.

“It’s a freedom of basically not melding into somebody else, when you’re copacetic on certain areas and you have freedom,” Hawn explained.

Using a metaphor, she summed up their dynamic.

“I’m a bird. And you leave the cage door open, I may never fly out. But if you close that door, for my freedom and my independence, I would probably take all my feathers off.”