Kate Hudson has shared many anecdotes about her famous family, including her mom, Goldie Hawn, but she recently made a very rare comment about her late stepmother, Cindy Williams.
In the latest episode of her and her brother, Oliver Hudson's Sibling Revelry podcast, they interviewed her Something Borrowed co-star, Ginnifer Goodwin, who Kate believes has an uncanny likeness to her stepmom.
Following the interview, Kate gushed over how "beautiful" Ginnifer is, telling her brother: "I can't even take it. I can't even take how beautiful… she's like a painting.
"And I used to say that all the time when we were working together. I'd look at her face and be like, lost in it, 'cos her eyes are so big, and she's like, porcelain skin. She's like Snow White.
© Getty Images"But then, she also looks like our stepmother. She's very much Cindy Williams," Kate added, and Oliver agreed, "a billion per cent."
Cindy, who starred in Happy Days and its spin-off Laverne & Shirley, passed away from a brief illness in January 2023 at the age of 75.
© Getty ImagesShe married Kate and Oliver's dad, Bill Hudson, in 1982, and they divorced in 2000 after welcoming two children, Emily and Zachary.
Kate and Oliver were primarily raised by Goldie and her partner of over 40 years, Kurt Russell, whom they refer to as their "Pa."
The siblings had a complicated relationship with Bill, who Goldie previously described as an "absentee father," which Kate and Oliver also corroborated.
© Getty ImagesIt all came to a head in 2015 after Oliver shared a photograph on social media on Father's Day of himself and Kate with Bill, captioning it: "Happy abandonment day… @katehudson."
Shortly after, Bill gave an interview to The Mail in which he spoke out against his kids and ex-wife, saying: "Goldie wanted to create this myth of a perfect family with Kurt and she wanted me out."
Of his children, he stated: "I say to them now, 'I set you free'. I had five birth children, but I now consider myself a father of three. I no longer recognize Oliver and Kate as my own.
© Getty Images"I would ask them to stop using the Hudson name. They are no longer a part of my life. Oliver's Instagram post was a malicious, vicious, premeditated attack. He is dead to me now. As is Kate. I am mourning their loss even though they are still walking this earth."
The relationship between them remained terse for several years, and while Kate has maintained that her bond with him is still rocky, Oliver has clarified that he's on the road to mending it, and that has remained to this day.
Speaking with Larry King Now in 2018, he said of the Father's Day Instagram post that Bill was "hurt by it." He added: "I called him, and we got on the phone and talked. It was really productive.
© Getty Images"Then we saw each other, had breakfast, and it was the first time I had seen him in 12 years, and it was really amazing to see him. We talked it out, and we had a really great three-hour conversation."
While Kate doesn't appear to have kept in touch with Bill as much, she did say in a 2016 interview with Howard Stern: "I really do recognize whatever those issues are, it's just something that he has to live with, and that must be painful for him, so I forgive him."
