The Tragedy Of Goldie Hawn Gets Sadder And Sadder

The following article discusses mental health, sexual harassment, and child molestation.

Goldie Hawn is an iconic actor, groundbreaking producer, and doting mother and grandmother. Having achieved so much in her career and personal life, the “Private Benjamin” star may give off the impression that she has the perfect existence. However, she has faced her fair share of tragedies, especially in her private life. From caring for and then losing her sick mother to experiencing birth trauma and struggling with her mental health in the early days of her career, Hawn knows a thing or two about tragedy.

Hawn learned that the world wasn’t always a safe place for women when she was still a child. And that continued to prove true when she embarked on her dancing career. “[I] had some horrible experiences as a young dancer in New York City. I mean, I’ll top all of them,” she told CNBC. Hawn described being trapped in a dark room and having to make a run for it. “I think it has to do with narcissism, an ability to think that they’re invincible and they pretty much can do whatever they want to do,” she said.

The situation didn’t get much better after she went into acting. Hawn said the influential cartoonist Al Capp attempted to coerce her, then 19, to have sex with him during what she thought was an audition. “He took off his business clothes and came [in], like, a dressing gown,” she told People in 2017. Through all the obstacles, Hawn stayed true to herself — and grew a pretty thick skin.

Goldie Hawn’s motherhood journey started with complications and trauma. After going into labor three weeks past her due date, her healthcare team detected that Oliver Hudson was in distress and rushed her to have an emergency C-section. Because her 11-pound newborn was taken straight to the NICU, Hawn didn’t get to hold him upon birth. Oliver suffered from meconium aspiration syndrome, a rare complication that happens when babies breathe in amniotic fluid mixed with their first poop.

Meconium aspiration can lead to severe illness and even death. “You had a 40% chance of living,” Hawn told Hudson on his and Kate Hudson’s “Sibling Revelry” podcast. When her doctor urged her to go to the NICU, she froze. “I was so afraid of what would happen if I saw you again. I would fall in love with you, and you would die,” she said. She mustered her courage and went up.

She did fall in love — and did what she could to save him. “I put my hand on him, and I asked God, I said, ‘Come through me, use me to heal my son,'” she told People in 2017. And his heart started going up. Even though everything turned out okay, Oliver believes the experience affected him. “I was whisked away from you, didn’t have a mother’s love, and was put on a metal slab,” he said. “Even though that was unconscious, how could that not have impacted me in some way?”

Goldie Hawn’s baby lived, but her mother wasn’t as lucky. Before she had Goldie and Patti, Laura Hawn gave birth to a baby boy named Edward. But neither girl got to meet him because he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Laura’s own trauma came rushing back when she watched her daughter experience a difficult birth. When she learned about Goldie’s situation with Oliver Hudson, she could barely cope. “She didn’t come out of her room for several days because her first baby had a SIDS death,” Hawn told Oliver on the podcast.

Laura fed a perfectly healthy Edward at 6 a.m. When she came back to check on him two hours later, he was unresponsive in his crib. “My mother, on top of everything, was having this PTSD, horrible moment,” he said. As a result, she couldn’t be there to support Goldie during this difficult time. “My mother couldn’t talk to me,” she said.

Additionally, Laura was triggered by Oliver’s middle name. Hawn named her son Oliver Rutledge after his grandfather, and Laura named her first Edward Rutledge after his father. In the Jewish tradition, naming a child after a living person is considered bad luck, so Laura feared her grandson would have a similar fate as her son. Hawn couldn’t fully understand her mother’s reaction until she experienced panic attacks while visiting a NICU years later. “I had to get out. It was just visceral in my being,” she said.

Goldie Hawn’s mother played an important part in her life. Laura Hawn supported Goldie’s aspirations like no one else, and the girl lived to make her mother proud. When Laura became too weak from cancer to live on her own, Goldie put her career on hold to care for her for four years. Laura died on her 80th birthday in November 1993, shattering Goldie’s world. “Pleasing my mother was my dance in this life, and, with Mom gone, I have to reevaluate everything that I am,” she wrote in her 2005 memoir, “A Lotus Grows in the Mud.”

With such a great bond, Goldie took a while to find her footing again. “For a full year, I can feel only intense sadness,” she wrote. “Whatever I do, I’m unable to fix it. Even my children sense that I’m not the same.” Just like Kate Hudson has a great relationship with Goldie, she also had a close relationship with Laura. “She was my rock for 14 years. A true matriarch. This Thanksgiving is for u gram!!!” she captioned a 2014 Instagram post.

Goldie has also used social media to honor her mother and the different generations in their family. “Darling daughter here you are with your grandmother who loved you with all of her heart! … Blessed are we all. Gram is looking down i know is so proud of you. The circle of life how awesome,” she captioned a 2024 Mother’s Day post.

Goldie Hawn’s appearance at the 2025 Oscars sparked worries when she presented the best animated feature film and best animated short categories alongside Andrew Garfield (seen above). It turned out she was struggling to read the teleprompter and, amid her difficulties, made the spontaneous decision to share she was suffering from an eye condition. “Can you, sweetheart, could you read that? I can’t read it. I’m completely blind,” she asked him before adding: “Cataracts.”

The condition, characterized by clouding in the lens of the eye, is common among older adults and is often treated with surgery. Hawn didn’t mean for her health issues to take center stage and reportedly regretted revealing her diagnosis at the ceremony. “Goldie is embarrassed that the focus of her Oscar night was her vision issues, it is not something she wanted everyone talking about,” a source told the Daily Mail. “She was just trying to be funny.”

The audience laughed, but not everyone believed that was her goal. “Is Goldie hawn ok? … Ppl was laughing but I don’t think she was trying to be funny,” one netizen wrote on X, previously known as Twitter. Some viewers thought Hawn’s onstage demeanor suggested she might have been on medication, but she was likely just uncomfortable in the presenter role. During rehearsals, she experienced a “brief flub” before she successfully read her lines, the AP noted. Once again, the audience laughed along and didn’t make it awkward.

Goldie Hawn grew up amid the endless threats of war between the United States and the then-Soviet Union. Fears of a nuclear war peaked in the ’50s and ’60s when Hawn was a child. At age 11, Hawn’s fifth-grade teacher showed her class a training film featuring terrified mothers, destroyed cities, and a lot of blood. It was more than her young brain could process. “I called my mom at work and was still shaking as I told her, ‘Mommy, come home quick! We’re all going to die!” she told USA Today in 2022.

Because full-blown nuclear war never materialized, Hawn didn’t pay much attention to the effects of the threat on her mental health. That changed when another national tragedy struck. She was in her mid-50s when al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and that’s when she learned the impact the Cold War had on her. “After 9/11, I realized I was scared to death of the atom bomb. So for me, it put me in trauma,” she said on “Good Morning America” in 2024.

Hawn figured children growing up in the aftermath of the terrorist attack might have a similar experience. That inspired her to create MindUP, a program that works to improve children’s mental health. “I made a promise to myself that whatever I did do to help, if I helped 10 people, that would be enough,” she said in the USA Today interview.

When she landed her first acting role in “Good Morning World” in 1967, Goldie Hawn had recently moved to California to pursue a career as a dancer. She accepted the part, but she also felt out of place. “I didn’t want to do that. I was a dancer,” she said on Today’s “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” podcast. “I was just getting my feet wet.” Hawn’s struggles to adapt took a toll on her mental health, something she never expected could happen to her. “Nothing bothered me; I was joyful,” she said.

She initially didn’t know what to make of the sensations that took over her when she went on set. “I had to go back to my dressing room to pull myself together because I didn’t know when another panic attack was going to happen,” she shared. After a while, the episodes became more generalized and frequent. “Then I realized that every time I’d go into a restaurant or a place, I’d get dizzy, and I would want to go home,” she said.

Hawn sought professional help, working with a psychologist for nine years. “It’s really important to acknowledge it. Because only until you acknowledge it can you fix it,” she added. In her later years, Hawn has focused on her mental health initiatives to help young people recognize the signs early on. “Let’s spread awareness and support each other on this journey,” she captioned a May 2024 Instagram post to mark Mental Health Awareness Month. 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Goldie Hawn was sexually assaulted by a family friend when she was 11. It was around Christmas time, a holiday the Hawns loved despite their Jewish heritage. The house was full when she went to sleep, only to be woken up by the presence of a man in her bed. He touched her chest before moving his hands down to her groin. “The presence of his cold fingers against my skin frightens me,” she revealed in “A Lotus Grows in the Mud.”

She sat up in bed and recognized her sister Patti’s 20-year-old friend — someone she had known her whole life. Goldie cried out, prompting her mother, Patti, and some of her other friends to come into her room. One of them pointed out a wet stain on the rug. “The look of betrayal and incredulity in Patti’s face scares me,” she wrote. She and her friends went after the guy. Goldie was ready to panic until she noticed her mother, who was calm and collected. “Goldie, listen to me. That boy was sick. He’s gone now,” she told her.

Laura Hawn’s demeanor made the situation less frightening, something Goldie was always thankful for. “I thought it was important the way my mother and everybody in the family handled it. Because, you know, our brains imprint a certain thing as how our family remembers certain things and how they react to it,” she said on CNN‘s “Larry King Live” in 2006.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).