Kate Hudson has spent decades in the spotlight, rising to fame as an actress, and now moving on to music.
Throughout it all, she's had the support of her mother, Goldie Hawn, and longtime stepfather, Kurt Russell. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Hudson shares some of the advice they've given her over the years, including an interesting dating tip.
"Kurt always used to say, you want the guy that puts their worst foot forward," she said. "Because they're not lying to you, right? It's like, just give me your worst foot forward, and then I know what I'm in for … what's the worst part of you that is going to be something that I'm going to have to manage?"
She called it a "stoic" way of looking at relationships, and a way to "take the romance out of it," even though she called herself a "romantic girl."
"Let's just go right into the bad and the ugly," she continued. "And I think that that's sort of one of the things when they became partners, it was more about – they'd been through it, they'd had kids and they were able to really be honest about who they are and what the expectation was going to be in terms of relationship. And they started with that kind of openness of communication."
The "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" star said that she liked that kind of approach to relationships because she's never wanted anything "sugar-coated."
"Sugar-coated beginnings usually don't end well," she admitted with a laugh. "So that's always been my thing that I think about when I would start dating someone, I'd be like, 'What's your worst foot? Just give me the truth right now, and then we can skip all the other stuff.'"
Hudson is currently engaged to musician Danny Fujikawa, who proposed in 2021. They share a daughter, five-year-old Rani, and they've been together since 2016, although they've known each other for much longer – two of her close friends are Fujikawa's stepsisters.
While Hawn and Russell have been willing to give her advice on relationships, she told Fox News Digital that work is a different matter. When it comes to acting, which Hawn and Russell obviously have vast amounts of experience doing, she said "There's no advice."
She admitted with a laugh, "We don't even watch each other's stuff. . . . We're a very busy family, and we all work so much and do a lot of stuff that we don't really see each other's things, and then we'll either say, ‘Oh, we loved it’ or ‘Eh.’"
Brothers Oliver Hudson and Wyatt Russell are also actors, and she explained that when the family talks about each other's work, they all feel comfortable enough to be honest, because as actors, they're just the "hired guns" of the production.
While Hudson has been a big name in Hollywood for several years – her breakthrough role was Penny Lane in "Almost Famous," which was released in 2000 – she's currently shifting her focus to include music.
In May, she released her debut studio album, "Glorious," and she has performed two ticketed events to promote it – one at The Bellwether in Los Angeles in May and another earlier this month at Webster Hall in New York City.
"Music's very foreign to them," she said of Hawn and Russell. "I didn't grow up in a musical household, I grew up in a very storyteller-focused . . . music was always my kind of hideaway."
She continued, "From my mom and Kurt, both of them, I really can feel how proud they are of my courage to just do it at this time in my life. And I think that because they know it's been such a huge part of my life since I was young and a big love of mine, you know? I'm no longer a party trick."
Hudson laughed at that, recalling being told when she was younger to "play the piano and do the song you wrote the other day."
WATCH: KURT RUSSELL AND HIS SON SHARE WHAT THEY LEARNED WORKING TOGETHER
"It was just for people that knew us vs. a real thing," she explained of performing. "And I think when they see me on stage now, it's like, I think they feel like a real sense of joy, because they know I'm really living out something that I should have been doing for a while. I can feel that in them, and that's a great feeling, because it's always nice to see your parents. . . . I'm so glad they got to see it."
Even though music wasn't a huge part of Hawn and Russell's home, it does seem to run in the family. She said that her grandfather on her mother's side was a professional violinist who also had perfect pitch, and she noted that Wyatt is also a "very talented musician and songwriter."
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Her father, Bill Hudson, was a member of the band The Hudson Brothers, along with Brett and Mark Hudson. The group achieved fame in the '70s, enough to land them their own TV show, "The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show." They also released hits like "You Are a Star" and "Rendezvous."
Still, when asked whether he had inspired her to make music, she plainly said, "No."
With a laugh, she clarified, "I mean, not really . . . as far as DNA is concerned, I think that I feel very connected to that side of my family through music. It's just so clear that that's where it comes from. . . . So I feel that connection, you know?"
"There was a void. I didn't realize how big it was until I did it."
She continued, "But inspiration, I think, is just a personal thing. It's like, it's just something that has been calling me my whole life. And I always just thought, you know what? This is mine. It'll just be mine."
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Hudson never imagined she'd ever share her music on this scale, but things changed when the COVID-19 pandemic began. She began reflecting on her life and asked herself, "If I died tomorrow, if this thing is going to take us all down, have I left it all on the table?"
"And I hadn't," she admitted. "And so that for me was like, 'I'm missing something.'"
Now that she's being more open with the musical side of herself, she feels "more whole than I've ever felt creatively."
She added, "There was a void. I didn't realize how big it was until I did it."