Kate the great is celebrating a milestone.
Kate Hudson turns 40 on April 19, and she already revealed her big plans to celebrate in style, recently saying on LIVE With Kelly and Ryan, "My 40th is coming up and I keep saying I deserve a really good hangover. And it's going to happen!"
Given that she's a mom of three, welcoming her third child in October 2018 with partner Danny Fujikawa, award-winning actress, best-selling author, entrepreneur and clothing designer, it's safe to say Kate has definitely earned the right to party hard as she officially says goodbye to her 30s.
With Goldie Hawn as a mom and Kurt Russell as her dad, Kate grew up in Hollywood, spending her childhood on film sets before eventually becoming a major star in her own right, thanks to movies like Almost Famous, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Raising Helen and more.
Beyond her impressive acting resume, Kate has become the ultimate boho-chic style icon, thanks to her effortless fashion choices and sunny, laid-back attitude, resulting in a major clothing brand and a recently launched second eco-friendly collection.
And like some of her famous friends, Kate has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in the lifestyle and wellness world, releasing two best-selling books and a refreshing outlook on eating well and moving your body.
To celebrate Kate's 40th, we're revealing 40 fun facts about the Fabletics co-founder you might not know about one of the coolest women in Hollywood...
1. After Kate was born in 1979, Goldie split from her father Bill Hudson in 1982, with the musician not really having any presence in her or older brother Oliver Hudson's childhoods.
"I never felt it was about losing interest. My mom never spoke poorly of him. I was a real tough little girl," she told Howard Stern in 2016. "I understood what was going on, I did understand that it didn't have to do with me and Oliver."
In 2015, Bill Hudson had slammed Kate and Oliver in an interview with the Daily Mail, saying, "I say to them now, 'I set you free.' I no longer recognize Oliver and Kate as my own... [Oliver] is dead to me now. As is Kate."
Speaking to Stern, Kate said she had since forgiven her biological father. "I think forgiveness in any aspect is something that is complex. It is the greatest tool to be able to separate that attachment. So for me, I recognize whatever those issues are is something he has to live with. That must be painful for him and I forgive him."
2. After Hawn and Kurt Russell got together in 1983 (though they have never married), Kate and Oliver grew up considering the actor, whom they call "Pa," their sole father figure. "The trust I got from [Russell] in terms of his dependability was priceless for me," she told Stern of Russell. "I love him so much."
3. Having gone through two splits from partners she's had children with, ex-husband Chris Robinson and Matt Bellamy, Kate credited her mother for teaching her how to co-parent when she was on the podcast, Divorce Sucks! with Laura Wasser.
"I think the one thing that I learned from my mom is that no matter what you're feeling and no matter what—when I see my friends talking s--t about their ex-spouses in front of their kids, I get so upset because they don't recognize how much that affects their child and how resentful their child will become of them," she said. "No matter what, I never heard a bad word about my father."
4. Having grown up on film sets watching her famous parents, Kate didn't really feel the desire to act until she attended the Williamstown Theater Festival in 1995, where she was an apprentice. "I built sets, and they'd put on productions in the middle of a field," she told Rolling Stone. "It was this big hippie theater; it was so incredible."
5. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but don't expect to see the sunny mother and daughter duo ever work together. In 2017, Hawn told The Los Angeles Times the expectations for a collaboration would be too high: "You want to talk about baggage!"
"We would love it, but it's really interesting," she explained, "unless it's something great, honey, you don't do it."
6. While Hudson has never shared the screen with her mother, she briefly worked with Russell in 2016's Deepwater Horizon, though she often visited him on set growing up.
"It's really boring [being on set] but for me as a kid, I loved it. I loved every aspect of it and I loved watching Kurt because he's such a phenomenal actor," she said on Good Morning America. "He puts so much care and effort into his roles in a way that I think is different than a lot of young people I've worked with."
7. During an interview with EW Radio, she remembered being on the set of Overboard, her parents' classic 1987 rom-com when she was eight years old. "For us, it was just mom and dad working and it was cool because it was summer and they were together," she said. "It's sort of normal for us…we were on set the whole time."
Her favorite lines from the movie? "Roy!" or "I just ate a bug!" or "eat your checkers!" all because of her mom's line readings.
8. Kate's breakout role came when she was 20 years old and played Penny Lane, her now iconic role in Almost Famous. But she almost didn't play the "band-aid" in Cameron Crowe's movie, as several other actresses were up for the part, including Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman and many others, with Sarah Polley initially landing the role. Kate, meanwhile, was cast as the main character's sister, Anita, which was eventually played by Zooey Deschanel. When Polley dropped out, Kate, who was in awe of Crowe's work and would've been happy with "one line," became Penny.
"She got Penny because of her loyalty," Crowe told Rolling Stone. "She hung in and had turned down leads in other movies just to play the part of the sister in our movie. Everyone told her she was crazy and told us that we were going to lose her. Then she'd call and say, 'Don't listen to them, you'll never lose me.'"
9. Kate's perseverance paid off, with the young star going on to win a Golden Globe for Almost Famous in 2001. "I was so nervous," Kate recalled of the big moment in an interview with E!'s Live From the Red Carpet's Ryan Seacrest at the 2018 Golden Globes. "I was very excited Tom Cruise got to give me the award. That was pretty cool! And then I remember getting really drunk, that was my night!"
10. Jimmy Fallon considers her the one that got away! During a game of "Loaded Questions" with Margot Robbie on his show, the late night host revealed she was the co-star he thought he could have dated but didn't. While working together on Almost Famous, Fallon said they became "super good friends," and he invited her to a comedy show…where they ended up meeting Robinson, her eventual husband.
The following day, Fallon and Hudson had plans to ice skate in Central Park, and during that outing Fallon realized he had been friend-zoned. "We ice skated maybe three or four times around the rink," Fallon recalled. "And then I go, 'So, what are you doing now?' She goes, ‘I've got to go because I have a date with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.'"
11. Kate's relationship with the musician was fast and serious, with the two were married after less than one year of dating, and she thanked him in her Golden Globes speech for inspiring her every day. In 2004, they welcomed their son, Ryder, but called it quits in 2006 after six years of marriage.
12. Looking back, Kate admitted she felt like "a teen mom" after having her first child when she was just 24. "I was like 12 when I [had him]...In terms of like a Hollywood actress, I was like a teen mom," she said on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan. "Me and Reese Witherspoon were like teen moms. We had kids really super young."
13. Following her divorce, Kate went on to date some high-profile men, including a three-year on-and-off romance with her You, Me and Dupree co-star Owen Wilson, Dax Shepard, Lance Armstrong, and Alex Rodriguez. Plus, there were several rumored hookups, including Diplo, Derek Hough and Nick Jonas. "Out of my best effort to respect her and her privacy, I'm not going to say if we had sex or not," Jonas said in a 2016 Complex interview. "But we did have a beautiful connection. Even now I have so much admiration and respect. She's amazing."
For the most part, Kate remains silent when it comes to addressing her relationships, once telling Red, "The media scrutinizes all single women in the public eye. You cannot have a conversation with a man without being attached to them."
14. Still, that doesn't mean she wasn't dating and enjoying it.
"I love boys," she told Elle UK in 2009. "I believe they're really simple. Every guy likes to say that they're complicated, but they're so easy to figure out. What did that Dr. Laura say? Something like, 'All men want is sex and for you to make them a sandwich.' I thought that was really funny—and not entirely untrue."
15. Kate first started dating Muse frontman Matt Bellamy in 2010, with the couple welcoming their son, Bing Bellamy, in July 2011, just three months after he proposed. But in 2015, the actress and the British rock star ended their engagement.
"Relationships ending are painful, and you can choose to carry that or you can choose to reframe it. If Matt and I had a great relationship, we would still be together, but we chose to move on because we had different visions of how we wanted to live our lives," she told Allure following the split. "That doesn't mean, though, that we can't rebuild something that would be the best thing for the kids."
16. In December 2016, Kate quietly started dating musician Danny Fujikawa, with the two going on a hike for their first date. The two quickly entered a "really amazing, calm relationship," she told E! News, adding, "He makes me happy." In October 2018, the couple welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Rani Rose in honor of Danny's grandfather.
17. As for how she met Danny? Turns out, she knew him for 13 years before they began dating, as he's the step-brother of two of her closest friends, Erin and Sara Foster. "The first time I met Danny I was 23 and enormously pregnant with Ryder," she reminisced on their anniversary. As for the moment it changed for the longtime friends, Kate told us, "We just sort of looked at each other and went, 'Oh, wow. This is weird. I really like you,' and the rest is history."
18. When Kate gave birth to her second son, Bing Bellamy, she revealed her mom got a little too comfortable, bringing Doritos and pizza to the hospital, and got way too close when she was actually delivering the baby. "She wanted me to think of my vagina as a magnolia flower," she said on Ellen. "And I was like, 'I never want to think of my vagina that big, ever.'" Hawn, who was also on the show with her, simply said, "It was going to open—and that's what the flower did."
19. After having two boys, Kate was excited to add a girl to the family.
"My whole life has been boys. I have three brothers, I have two sons, I have two nephews, and one beautiful little niece. It's really been me and Mommy with a whole bunch of boys," she told The Cut. "I'm excited about the balance. I was excited for my boys as I am for my girl, but at least now, if I have another baby, it really won't matter what the gender is at all. At least I have one girl!"
20. When she was 22, Kate landed one of her other iconic roles: Andie Anderson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a role initially intended for Gwyneth Paltrow, one of Kate's BFFs. After the filmmakers saw Almost Famous, Kate was their girl. To prep for the role of the magazine writer, Kate spent a day shadowing Anna Wintour at Vogue. The 2003 movie, along with its stars Kate and Matthew McConaughey, was a breakout hit, and it's the movie most fans reference when they approach her. (The dramatic breakup scene, which included the line, "You can't lose something you never had," is the most quoted, by the way.)
Sadly, "I definitely don't still own the Love Fern," Kate revealed to Marie Claire UK.
21. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Kate revealed her favorite on-screen kiss was with the late Heath Ledger in their 2002 movie, The Four Feathers.
"I would say my favorite one was Heath," she told Andy Cohen. "That was pretty excellent...he was just so beautiful and sweet and gentle."
22. When filming 2009's Bride Wars, Kate accidentally slapped Anne Hathaway in the face during a scene. "We were really tired, and I had this big rock on my finger...whacked Annie in the face so hard," Hudson said on the Rachael Ray show. "She was like, 'No, no, keep going,' because she was so into it...Two hours later, she's sitting in the back of a car with an ice pack on her face. I was so bad. I really clocked her."
23. Kate has a lot of friends and a lot of famous friends, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Richie, Jennifer Meyer and Liv Tyler, among others.
"I kind of like that we're intimidating," she once said of her group of friends. "You know, when you see a group of girls walk in that are having more fun than anyone?"
24. She considers her brother Oliver her best friend, telling Cosmopolitan, "The first person I call is Oliver Hudson to make me laugh. The best advice he ever gave me was: 'Nobody cares! There's about seven-plus billion people in the world who don't give a s--t.'"
25. In 2016, Hudson shaved off her signature blonde locks for Sia's movie Sister, with the singer (who is also one of Hudson's BFFs) doing the honors. "When it was done, it was like: 'Oh, my head's shaved...Oh, my god!" she admitted during an interview on the British TV show, Lorraine.
In the past, Hudson liked to use her hair as a shield of sorts to cover up a childhood insecurity about her ears, telling InStyle, "They were something people made fun of. I was a pretty tough girl, though."
26. Though she was tough, Kate did deal with insecurities growing up, telling Vanity Fair, "When I hit puberty, I started trying to figure out who I was and trying to come to terms with my feminine power. Then you look at your mother, who's got this incredible figure. You're standing there with little bee stings on your chest, saying, 'Well, what about me? Am I pretty? Am I going to have a nice figure? Am I sexual?'"
27. Known for her healthy lifestyle, Hudson's workout mantra is pretty simple: "Break a sweat every day," whether that's a tough pilates class or just running around with your kids.
"Even if it's just for 20 minutes. I'm very disciplined about that," she told Self. "That said, sweating every day doesn't mean you have to go crazy. Even if I'm running with the kids, I feel like I've done something."
28. Her favorite workouts include Pilates, which she's been practicing for close to 20 years and does twice a week, SoulCycle, which she loves to do with friends, and dancing.
Her approach is aspirational and attainable: "I work my ass off. I work out. I eat well. I still have fun," she told Elle, explaining, "I believe in living a kind of lifestyle. So I'm as healthy as I can be, and just mentally, I can't go too long without being active...it's about health and mindfulness, because you can have the greatest body and you can be really unhappy if that's all you're working toward."
29. In 2013, she founded Fabletics, her own line of workout clothes, because she wanted "to motivate people to get active and feel good doing it and feel cute." Since its launch, the brand has attracted over one million subscribers, 24 store locations (with plans to expand to 100 in the next year) and over $300 million in revenue.
In March, Kate was honored in the Fashion Entrepreneur category at The Daily Front Row's fifth annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards, and during her acceptance speech she revealed the clothing brand has become the "most rewarding" professional endeavor in her life.
30. When it comes to her relationship with food, Hudson told Self makes sure to "eat well without depriving myself of the things that I love." And that list is relatable AF: cheeseburgers, fries, pasta, ice cream, etc. Moderation is key for Kate, who once told Self she aims to eat about 1,800 calories a day.
After welcoming her third child, Kate became a global ambassador for Weight Watchers in late 2018, with Oprah Winfrey officially welcoming the star to the program via a cute FaceTime call. During their convo, the icon asked Kate why she was joining WW for its "For Every Body" campaign.
"Well Oprah, my 'why' is really my kids, and my family, and longevity and wanting to be here as long as I can," she answered. "It's really about the holistic approach to wellness."
Recently, Kate updated her fans on Instagram that she is "a couple lbs from goal weight," crediting Weight Watchers for helping her along the way.
31. Her approach to dieting is simple: she doesn't.
"I figured out how to sort of balance it all out so that I'm not like killing myself over diets and things like that because I don't really believe in dieting," Kate told Self. "I believe in living a kind of lifestyle."
32. Unlike many of her A-list peers, Hudson was quick to embrace social media, becoming a quick must-follow on Snapchat and Instagram, amassing 10 million followers on the latter. And she does it all herself, thank you very much.
"Someone asked me, 'Who does your Insta? It's great!' And I was like, 'Are you out of your mind? I wouldn't want anyone to touch my social media!'"
For Hudson, she liked the idea of being able to share things about her life on her own terms, explaining in a 2016 interview, "I like that it gives you an opportunity to take back your own narrative a bit and not let other people tell your life story for you."
33. In early April 2019, Kate revealed that she is launching her own podcast with her brother, Oliver. "These siblings are up to something and you're gonna love it!" she wrote on Instagram. "Can you guess...? I'll give you a hint... It starts with a pod and ends with a cast."
34. The same month, Kate announced the launch of her first clothing collection, aptly titled Happy x Nature, as the 30 pieces are eco-friendly and have Hudson's signature boho vibe. "Our goal is simple – making you and nature happy with easy, free-spirited fashion that minimizes our impact on non-renewable resources," she wrote on Instagram.
And in an interview with Marie Claire, she revealed her partner Danny came up with the name. "'That's what people think you are,'" she said, "Though, I don't think anyone is happy by nature. I think it's something we all work at, but I think we all want to make nature happy."
35. Kate has written two New York Times best-selling books, 2016's Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body, and 2018's Pretty Fun: Creating and Celebrating a Lifetime of Tradition. Kate decided to add author to her resume after noticing she was constantly being asked the same lifestyle questions over the years, telling The Independent, "I thought it was a nice opportunity to actually not have to continue to explain myself because I felt like every time you talked about it, it gets reduced to something and you can't really reduce lifestyle changes. If you really want to shift your lifestyle and be motivated it's a much longer conversation than a soundbite so it was a nice forum to be able to just put out there and part of what I talk about is that it's not about what I do, you know, it's about what you like and connecting to the things that make you feel motivated."
36. Like the rest of the world, Kate is completely obsessed with Game of Thrones, and recently rewatched it as Danny had never seen it. "I love it. I love when it gets all soft porn and you're like, ‘Why?! I don't understand!'" she admitted on Today. "But I love it because it's so unnecessary."
37. Her go-to drink is a martini, an indulgence she was missing during her recent pregnancy. oh, and she likes it extra dirty.
"Visualizing and connecting to a healthy birth and my first filthy dirty martini," she wrote on Instagram, adding the hashtag "#MissMyMartinis."
38. One of the most important daily practices for her is meditation, which she called "the most helpful and life-changing thing for me," in an interview with The LA Times, adding, "You can feel the difference when you meditate on a regular basis." She aims to meditate 20 minutes in the morning and another 20 minutes in the afternoon, if she can.
39. While having three children with three different men sounds like a recipe for chaos, Kate's relationships are pretty drama-free, as Chris, Matt and Danny "all get along."
"As much as I would say I don't recommend it to most, my situation is quite amazing...it's funny and we laugh about it," she said on the Divorce Sucks! podcast. "I never thought my life would look like that, but it is what it is. All I care about is happy kids, and we all make that the priority."
The key to maintaining good relationships with her exes is putting the kids first, Kate revealed. "When you get divorced, you're still in a relationship. It's just a different kind of relationship. You're going to have good days, you're going to have bad days, you're going to have good weeks, bad weeks."
40. Kate is all about embracing change, telling Self, "I change my routine. I change my look. I change my mind."
And ultimately, she doesn't take herself too seriously. "I think finding the balance really is more about emotional balance, isn't it?" she said. "Sometimes stress can be good stress. The whole point is that life doesn't ever get easy. And so you have to learn how to enjoy it."
Happy 40th, Kate!