Kate Hudson may not be close to her biological father, Bill Hudson, but she is thankful for his surname.
The Oscar-nominated actress shared some rare appreciation for her dad while discussing growing up as the daughter of Hollywood elite, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, whom she and her brother, Oliver Hudson, refer to as their "Pa."
Kate revealed that Goldie and Kurt were "adamant" about not giving her handouts and encouraging her to find her own way, a lesson she "really took to heart."
"I'm being really honest with you, I grew up in L.A., where I saw kids coast by with parents who gave them everything," Kate said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "And I had the opposite parents.
"We were clearly privileged kids," the 46-year-old continued. "But I do think that my parents were so adamant about how none of it belonged to us, that we didn't earn it, that in order to get a life [like the one] we were living, we had to earn it ourselves, that that would never be available to us unless we had the same kind of work ethic."
© Getty ImagesDespite her estrangement from Bill, Kate confessed that at the beginning of her career, sharing his surname turned out to be a blessing because it was "really, really important" to her that she make it on her own.
"I was like, 'No, I will never rely on my parents,'" she recalled. "And that was my big thing, like, 'I will never take a job because of them. I don't want anybody knowing they're my parents.'
© Getty ImagesShe added: "When I first started, I was so happy my last name was Hudson."
Kate and Oliver had a complicated relationship with Bill, who Goldie previously described as an "absentee father," which Kate and Oliver also corroborated.
It 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."
© Getty ImagesShortly after, Bill gave an interview to The Mail in which he spoke out against his kids, 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.
"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 strained 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 his.
© Getty ImagesSpeaking 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.
"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."
