In late August, Erinn Bartlett posted a birthday message for her oldest son that doubled as a goodbye. “This little guy turned 19 yesterday and we moved him into college last week,” she wrote, according to Hola. “Lots of tears not gonna lie wow… but so happy and proud and excited for you Wildman!!” The young man she was crying over was Wilder Hudson, the son of actor Oliver Hudson and the grandson of Goldie Hawn.
Barely three months later, Goldie Hawn’s grandson is planning to come home. Oliver shared the news on the November 6 episode of Sibling Revelry, the podcast he hosts with his sister Kate Hudson, and he was candid about why. He also laid down house rules any parent will recognize, and the story ends in a place that sounds a lot like Goldie’s own past.
What Happened To Wilder After Move-In Day?
Wilder started his freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder in August. Not long after he settled into his dorm, he had to fly home to have his wisdom teeth removed, and E! News reported that the procedure turned into weeks of dental trouble. Oliver called the whole stretch “a bit of a false start.”
“He just got used to being home again. So, going back to school was a bit of a task,” the 50-year-old actor said, as reported by People. “When he went back, he just felt a little depressed, like he didn’t belong there anymore.” According to Hello! magazine, Oliver added that Wilder felt that way “even though his best friend is his dormmate.”
The turning point came at Parents’ Weekend. “We had just an amazing time, just the two of us,” Oliver told People. “I got a hotel room, we slept in the same room and just chatted, and really got to the heart of what he was feeling.” What he heard was that his son “was just carrying so much stress.” So the family made a plan, and it came with conditions.
What Are Oliver Hudson’s Rules For Moving Back Home?
“After pontification and good deep conversation, we came up with a plan for him to defer his second semester,” Oliver said, according to People. Wilder will live at home, get a job and take a screenwriting class at Santa Monica College. Both People and E! News reported that he plans to return to Boulder for his sophomore year unless an acting job comes through first.
That acting dream is real. Wilder recently appeared alongside his dad and Alicia Silverstone in the Netflix holiday comedy A Merry Little Ex-Mas, and E! News reported that the experience helped convince him he wanted to pursue the business. “He wants to come home. He wants to take a shot at his life,” Oliver said. “He’s going to work on his auditions.”
The deal is not a vacation, though. “You’re not on summer break. You’re not sitting around. You’re not waking up at noon,” Oliver said he told his son, according to People. “If you want to be an adult, you have to act like one. And he was listening, and he’s very excited about it.” As for the famous name, he told Hello! that “no one’s going to give you a job just based on where you come from.”
Boulder is familiar ground. Oliver himself studied film at the University of Colorado, according to Biography.com, and he grew up partly in Colorado with the man he calls Pa.
How Kurt Russell Became The Dad Oliver Hudson Needed
Oliver’s biological father is Bill Hudson of the 1970s pop trio the Hudson Brothers, who married Goldie in 1976. The couple split when Oliver was a small boy, and on Valentine’s Day 1983 Goldie began her romance with Kurt Russell, her Swing Shift co-star and the star of Escape From New York. More than four decades later they are still together, sharing their quiet life on the Colorado ranch.
Kurt stepped into the role of father for Oliver and his sister Kate. “Kurt came into my life when I was six, five or six, and essentially he raised me,” Oliver said on a 2024 episode of Sibling Revelry, as reported by TODAY. “There’s no doubt that he is my dad. I call him Pa.” He also revealed that Kurt once offered to legally adopt both children, and they said no, which Oliver has stressed had nothing to do with a lack of love.
Today Kurt is 75, and Goldie turns 81 on November 21. Oliver has since reconnected with Bill, now 77. Kate, 47, earned her second Oscar nomination this year for Song Sung Blue, and her oldest son, Ryder, 22, reached his own college milestone this year. Wilder’s path is turning out to look a lot like his grandmother’s.
Goldie Hawn Once Left College To Chase The Same Dream
Before fame found her, Goldie was a drama student at American University in Washington, D.C. She left without finishing, and in 1964 she was running a ballet school and making her professional dancing debut in a production of Can-Can at the New York World’s Fair. By 1968 she was giggling through Laugh-In, and in 1970 she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Cactus Flower.
Goldie also knows more than most grandparents about what stress does to young people. In 2003 she started The Hawn Foundation, whose MindUP program teaches children to recognize their emotions and calm their stress so they can learn. “Stress is a killer,” Oliver said on the podcast, according to E! News.
Oliver admitted that he and Erinn still second-guess themselves. “We worry or wonder if this is the right choice,” he told listeners. “I’ve finally come to the term that it is the right choice for him.” Then he described what happened once the plan was set. “That alone just lifted this weight off of his shoulders,” Oliver said. “I could literally feel him start to float.”
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