During an appearance on 'The Drew Barrymore Show', the 'Scream Queens' actor opens up about his current relationship with biological father Bill Hudson after 2015 fallout over his social media post.
- Mar 10, 2021
AceShowbiz - Learning the art of "true forgiveness" and compassion has helped actor Oliver Hudson welcome his biological father back into his life after years of estrangement.
The "Scream Queens" star hit headlines in 2015, when he marked Father's Day with an old photo of himself and his actress sister Kate Hudson as kids, posing for the camera with their dad, Bill Hudson, who divorced the siblings' mum Goldie Hawn in 1980. "Happy abandonment day," he captioned the Instagram shot.
Bill publicly disowned Oliver and Kate for the "vicious" social media post, and urged his famous offspring, who were raised by Goldie and her longtime partner, Kurt Russell, to drop his last name. In 2018, Oliver revealed the exchange, although tense, prompted a dialogue between the pair, and they were working on repairing their fractured bond.
Now he admits the fallout couldn't have worked out any better, as they have since established a proper relationship between father and son. However, Oliver insists that wouldn't have been possible had he not also undergone his own therapy and attended a healing course at a special California retreat to ensure he would be open to a full reconciliation with Bill, who was estranged from his own parents during his youth.
"My dad and I have a relationship now for the first time in a long time, and it was spurned on by my dark, sort of insane sense of humor," he shared on "The Drew Barrymore Show". "I'd Instagrammed (sic) and said, 'Happy abandonment day...' I was just trying to be funny! It blew up, long story short, it brought us together because it created a dialog."
"So, I've done a lot of work on myself. I went to this place called The Hoffman Institute, where I learned... true forgiveness, true compassion, and what that really means. I went and looked into his life a little bit more and understood where he was coming from. So there's been a catharsis that I have had. We have a really great relationship now. It's just interesting how life plays out and how things work."
Host and fellow actor Drew Barrymore is no stranger to family estrangements of her own, following her notoriously troubled childhood, and revealed she, too, had made amends with her mother, Jaid Barrymore, after years of not speaking.
Sympathizing with Oliver's family history, she said, "My mum was the same, her family was not there [for her], and she was estranged and then we repeated that pattern. I think that due to my own experiences and my mum's experience, I was like, 'I have to get this different [with my kids]. It's not right or wrong, but I'm gonna have a determination about this,' that may have not been there otherwise, and I'm so grateful for it."
"And my mum and I are good now, too. It's like, there's just some peace and respect and maturity there, that could not have taken place maybe before. Timing is everything..."
