Who is Oliver Hudson related to? Meet the “Special Forces” star’s famous family
Who is Oliver Hudson related to? Meet the “Special Forces” star’s famous family
Brianna ZiglerFri, October 2, 2026 at 2:45 AM UTC
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Oliver Hudson on ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test’; Kate Hudson and Oliver HudsonCredit: Pete Dadds/FOX; Amy Sussman/GettyKey Points -
Actor Oliver Hudson referenced his famous family during his first two episodes on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
His family includes Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Kurt Russell, and Wyatt Russell.
Hudson’s own children have also taken an interest in show business.
During the premiere of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 5, contestant Oliver Hudson got real about the “pressure” of growing up in one of Hollywood’s most famous families.
“Coming from a successful family, I wrestle with comparison. I wrestle with insecurity,” he said during a confessional. “My mother’s an icon, so a part of me feels like I have to accomplish something greater for them to be truly proud of me.”
The actor has, nevertheless, forged his own career in the entertainment industry. He’s appeared in movies such as Black Christmas (2006), Grown Ups 2 (2013), and Happy Gilmore 2 (2025), and has been a regular on shows like Rules of Engagement, Scream Queens, and The Cleaning Lady. Yet despite all his accomplishments, he almost dropped out during his second episode of Special Forces — before deciding to persevere.
After failing one particularly grueling challenge, he sits alone and mutters to himself, “What the f--- am I doing with my life? Who am I?”
So, who exactly are Oliver Hudson’s family members? And what did he say about them on Special Forces? Ahead, get to know his family, including his mom, stepdad, sister, and wife.
Oliver grew up in one of Hollywood’s most famous families
Oliver Hudson, Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Wyatt Russell, and Kate Hudson with kids Ryder Robinson, Wilder Hudson, Bodhi Hudson, Rio Hudson, and Bingham Bellamy at the Annual Goldie’s Love In For Kids in 2016Credit: Todd Williamson/Getty
It’s understandable that Oliver Hudson might be a little intimidated by his family: To start, his mother is screen legend Goldie Hawn, whose credits include Private Benjamin (1980), Death Becomes Her (1992), and The First Wives Club (1996), as well as an Oscar-winning role in Cactus Flower (1969).
Shortly after leaving Hudson’s biological father, Bill Hudson, in 1982, Hawn began seeing fellow actor Kurt Russell. They’ve been together for more than 40 years, and Russell raised both Hudson and his sister, Oscar nominee Kate Hudson.
“Kurt came into my life when I was six, five or six, and essentially he raised me,” Oliver explained on his and Kate’s podcast, Sibling Revelry, in 2024. “I’m the man I am today because of him, right?”
Russell is a legend in his own right; just a few of his credits include The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Meanwhile, Kate broke out for her performance in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000)and has become one of the most well-known actresses of her generation. She starred in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), and Song Sung Blue (2025), the last of which led to her second Academy Award nomination.
As if that wasn’t enough, Oliver’s younger half-brother, Wyatt Russell, the son of Goldie and Kurt, has also become a successful actor. He scored steady supporting roles throughout the 2010s in projects like 22 Jump Street (2014) and Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), but he’s moved to the big leagues as of late. He plays John Walker, a.k.a. U.S. Agent, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and costarred in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day (2026). He’s even acted alongside his dad in the Apple TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
What does Oliver Hudson say about his family on Special Forces?
Oliver Hudson on ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test’Credit: Pete Dadds/ FOX
Being on Special Forces has prompted Hudson to confront some of the insecurities he harbors relating to his family. After failing the challenge in the second episode, Hudson says that, “coming from a family who’ve done incredible things, the fear of failure has definitely been a big factor, a big component in my life. Sometimes it’s easier to make some sort of excuse.” When speaking with the staff sergeants later in the same episode, he reveals that he struggles with self-esteem issues in “certain areas of life.”
“You obviously know who my family is, right?” he says. “Sister hit huge, quickly. And that was her path. And I’ve learned to accept my path.” When pressed about this, he responds, “I don’t think it’s competitive, I think it’s comparison. And comparison is death.”
During a confessional, he was even more candid: “My mom’s like, ‘When you were little, you would start something and if it got too difficult, you would quit.’ I think for me it’s about breaking through some barrier. I pushed up against it forever and it’s just about ramming through it. And once you get through it, you’re okay.”
Oliver and his wife Erinn met in an acting class in the late ’90s
Erinn Bartlett, Oliver Hudson, and their kids in 2023, via InstagramCredit: Uconsciously Coupled Podcast/Instagram
Hudson has been married to actress Erinn Bartlett since 2006. On a 2021 episode of Sibling Revelry, the couple opened up about how their relationship started. Hudson met Bartlett in the late ‘90s, in acting coach Sandy Marshall’s class. While Bartlett said that she did notice Hudson initially, she thought that he was “cute” but not her “style or vibe.” However, they were eventually paired together for a scene and got closer during rehearsals.
Hudson had a girlfriend at the time, so the two just stayed friends. Following his breakup, their friendship turned into something more, and the rest is history.
“20 years of marriage with this incredible being who blessed me with everything that is her! How lucky I am,” Hudson captioned a sweet Instagram selfie of Bartlett kissing him on the cheek in June 2026. “I could go on and on about this bubbly bright light who has changed my life but I won’t.. because she made me use this picture where she looks amazing and I look like you could wring tequila out of my eyelids.”
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Goldie Hawn helped convince Oliver to propose
Oliver Hudson on ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test’
Initially, Hudson wasn’t sure he ever wanted to get married. His parents’ marriage ended in divorce, and his mother and Russell have never officially tied the knot. “I didn’t want to get married,” he told E!’s Daily Pop in 2022. “I thought that the perfect relationship was Kurt and Mom. I mean, I was a child of divorce, that didn’t work, and then I saw this working.”
However, it was his mother who ended up encouraging him to propose. “I got Erinn jewelry every Christmas and that was part of my thing, and finally I bring some rings to my mom — not engagement rings — and she’s the one who says, ‘What are you doing? Do you want to spend the rest of your life with this person or not?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do. I’m deeply in love but I’m just scared,’” Oliver recalled.
“And she says, ‘It’s a token. You don’t have to get married right away,’” he continued. “So I gave her the ring and it was very scary and we were engaged for two and a half years.”
Oliver and Erinn welcomed three children: Wilder, Bodhi, and Rio
Oliver Hudson and his kids on his birthday in 2024, via InstagramCredit: Kate Hudson/Instagram
Hudson and Bartlett have three children together: sons Wilder Brooks, 19, and Bodhi Hawn, 16, and daughter Rio Laura, 13.
“It was crazy, the most insane, intense experience of my life,” Oliver told Carson Daly on Last Call in 2007about his first son’s birth. “I went through every range of emotions ... the fear and love, it was all coming down on me at once. It was intense.”
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And they’re a very open family, following Hudson’s own experiences growing up with Hawn and Russell: “Even now with my kids, we’re just naked people. That’s just the way it is,” he told PEOPLE in 2021. “Nudity has never been taboo. We were all born naked and it’s the way it is.”
On her son’s parenting skills, Hawn has only good things to say. “He’s the greatest, most handsome, amazing father, actor, comedian, human, son,” she told PEOPLE in 2017. “He’s such a gift. They’re all gifts, all my children.”
Wilder and Rio are considering the family business
Oliver Hudson and Kate Hudson at the premiere of ‘Song Sung Blue’ in 2025Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Focus Features via Getty
At least two of Hudson’s kids are already showing an interest in making their own careers in Hollywood. In 2025, his oldest child, Wilder, made his acting debut alongside his dad in the holiday film A Merry Little Ex-Mas — and Hudson is more than aware of the “nepo-baby” accusations.
“So look, nepotism is real,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “I’ve talked about it before on my podcast. I literally was just doing someone else’s podcast talking about nepotism and the whole nepo baby thing. And unfortunately, it’s gotten boiled down to the entertainment industry when nepotism exists across every industry.”
“Of course, we’re all trying to give our children a leg up,” he continued. “We’re all wanting them to succeed. I would argue that nepotism in our business can only go so far because yes, you can get your foot in the door, but you have to prove yourself.”
But Wilder isn’t the only one interested in the family business — Hudson’s daughter, Rio, has been compared to her grandmother, Goldie.
“Rio is showing some serious chops with dancing ability,” Kurt Russell toldE! News during an interview with Wyatt in February 2026. “There’s something about her. A lot of people call her ‘Mini Goldie.’”
However, being so intimately familiar with the industry, Hudson wants Rio to wait a few years until she tries her hand at it. “My mother with Kate said, ‘You’re not going to do anything but plays until you’re 18 years old, then you can go off and do your stuff.’ So I’m following in those footsteps, similarly to my mother,” he told HELLO! Magazine in March 2026.
“I’m saying, ‘Go be in plays, be an amazing dancer on the dance team, be you, and we’ll figure all of that stuff out when you’re a bit older,’” he continued. “To subject her to whatever the rigors might be of being a child actor… we’ve seen it go great, we’ve seen it be detrimental, and why risk that? If you’ve got it, you’ve got it, you can wait a few years.”
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