Goldie Hawn Says She Was 'Very Depressed' And Struggled With Fame At Beginning Of Career

Jan 22, 2022

Goldie Hawn is an American actress, singer and producer. Her initial claim to fame was appearing on the NBC series “Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.” In 1969, she won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Cactus Flower.” Hawn maintained her movie star status for over 30 years and appeared in such films as “There's a Girl in My Soup,” “Private Benjamin” and “The First Wives Club.” 

Hawn was born in Washington, D.C., and her parents were also entertainers. Her mom, Laura, was a dance instructor, and her father, Edward, was a successful band musician. Hawn began taking dance lessons when she was just 3 years old. She learned both ballet and tap dancing. At the start of her career, Hawn was actually a go-go dancer in New York City before she began acting professionally.

Hawn married Bill Hudson in 1976, and they had two children together, actors Oliver and Kate. The couple decided to split up and were divorced in 1982. The following year she entered into a relationship with Kurt Russell, and they have been together ever since. They have a son together, Wyatt, who is also an actor.

With her transition into acting in films and on television, Hawn became the “It” girl of the 1960s. However, she shared in 2021 that at the beginning of her career, when she first began to rise to fame, she struggled with her mental health. She said that she did not want to be a movie star and that the pressures of fame left her deeply troubled. 

Keep reading to learn more about Hawn’s struggle with her mental health and how she overcame it.

Hawn was very candid about her mental health when she shared in an interview on “Good Morning Britain” that the trouble began at the start of her career. Hawn said, "I was 21, rising to success, it's a very difficult thing. I didn't necessarily want that. In doing so, I was very depressed and I had a lot of these issues where I couldn't even go outside in public.”

The actress took a proactive approach and sought out help from medical professionals. She also took the time to learn about the brain and psychology so she could better understand what she was going through. Hawn shared, "This is something that for me I worked through. I went to a doctor, I went to a psychologist, I learned about quieting my mind and what happens to the brain, I studied the brain.”

After overcoming her hardships, Hawn became an advocate for others struggling with mental health issues, especially children. She feels that children should also have access to mental health resources. Hawn said,  "I didn't understand why we weren't taking it out and putting it in our classrooms for our kids to learn and enjoy and to be able to have a much better sense of self-regulation."

When looking back at the start of her career, Hawn recognizes that dancing is what made her happy, and the fame that came with acting only made things harder. "Happiness is a choice. Unfortunately, I didn't want to be a big deal. I wanted to go home… I wanted to be a dance school teacher. I did have a plan. So I didn't have delusions of grandeur on any level, I was extremely realistic. The problem was, I was a dancer. And then things changed,” Hawn said.

The actress added: "For every one of us, we have a different reason why we might feel low, depressed, anxious, a lot of these things… if I broke my arm I would go to a doctor, if I fell and hurt my hip I would go to a doctor. Doctors can help us and we should never feel ashamed to say, 'I'm feeling sad.'"

In an interview with Willie Geist on “Sunday Today,” Hawn again shared that becoming famous was never part of her plan. She said, “I didn’t want to be a movie star, first of all. I just felt people in LA, in the movie industry, that they— we all … messed up. I didn’t want to be like that. I was a happy person.”

Hawn shared that when she first began noticing negative symptoms like anxiety, she took them very seriously. “I started getting anxious and then I started getting panic attacks. I was so scared about what was going on with me that I saw a doctor. I wanted to get happy again! My intention was not to live this way,” she said.

Her own experience with mental health issues led Hawn to found the organization Mind Up. The organization focuses on helping children improve their mental fitness so they can succeed in school and in life in general. “I wanted to create something that children can access in teachers all over the world because we need to build a kinder world that actually has greater capacity for critical thinking,” Hawn explained. “There’s no time like now to have a solution.“

Are you a fan of Goldie Hawn? What do you think of her mission to help kids with mental health? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your friends and loved ones.