Kate and Oliver Hudson‘s estranged father, Bill Hudson, praised Kurt Russell for stepping up as a dad to his kids.
“I couldn’t have chosen a better man to be the surrogate father for Oliver and Kate,” Bill, 74, tells Us Weekly exclusively in the new issue. “He’s a straight shooter. There is no BS with him. They were both stellar.”
Goldie Hawn welcomed Kate, 45, and Oliver, 47, during her marriage to Bill, which lasted from 1976 until 1982. Over the years, both Kate and Oliver have been candid about feeling abandoned by their biological dad, but Russell, 73, was quick to take on the role as “Pa” after becoming Hawn’s longtime partner. (Hawn, 78, and Russell have been together since 1983 and are also the parents of actor Wyatt Russell.)
Now that Bill is back in the picture, he’s hoping for a fresh start to make one big happy family.
“I’ve told Oliver we should throw a party,” he tells Us. “Everyone shows up, and we remember that at one point in our lives, we loved each other. And that we didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Bill went on to say that after “years of ups and downs,” the family is slowly working their way back to each other.
“There’s no pressure,” he shares. “We’re just letting it be what it will be. Because no one is pushing it, there’s no turmoil or issues.”
During an appearance on CBS Sunday Morning last month, Kate explained that her relationship with her father is “warming up,” and Bill agrees.
“Kate put it perfectly. We are warming up [and] letting things take their course,” he tells Us. “All families have rifts. It’s nice that our rift is healing.”
Bill also shared Emily, 42, and Zachary, 38, with his late ex-wife, Cindy Williams, and 18-year-old Lalania with ex Caroline Graham. (He also had a son named Paul as a teen, who was put up for adoption.)
While Bill works on his relationship with Kate and Oliver, he tells Us that they’ve made it a point not to look back at past drama.
“A lot went down, and we aren’t revisiting it,” Bill says. “No one wants to rehash the past. You can’t move forward if all you’re doing is analyzing the past. We’re in the present.”
For more details, watch the video above and pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.
