Goldie Hawn reveals why relationship with Kurt Russell works: 'Why should we get married?'

After 40 years together, actors Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell remain uninterested in marriage.

"Why should we get married? Isn't that a better question?" the Oscar-winning actress said last week on CNN's "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?"

Russell, 72, and Hawn, 77, met more than 50 years ago and have been an item since the 1980s. Though they sparked marriage rumors in 1989 when Russell seemed to propose to Hawn while presenting at the Academy Awards, the two have not tied the knot.

"Because we have been married and because when it doesn't work out it ends up to be a big business. Somebody has to own something. It's always ugly," said Hawn, who had two marriages before entering her relationship with Russell, who was married once prior.

"Somebody has to actually take a look and say, 'How many divorces are fun? How many divorces actually don't cost money? How many divorces make you even hate the person more than you did before? How many divorces have hurt children?'" she added.

Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell's children didn't want them to marry

Hawn and Russell remain together because they choose to stay together every day, she told host Chris Wallace.

"I like the idea that I can wake up in the morning and make decisions every day if I want to be here," she said. "Ultimately, staying independent with independent thinking is important. So you can hold on to yourself and you're going to actually have that feeling."

In 2016, Hawn said on the British daytime talk show "Loose Women" that she believes being together "68% of the time" is ideal.

"I would've been long divorced if I'd been married," she said.

Russell and Hawn share one son, 37-year-old actor Wyatt Russell. The two also have children from their previous marriages: Oliver, 46, and Kate Hudson, 44, who were born out of Hawn's marriage with ex-husband Bill Hudson, and Boston Russell, who is Russell's son with Season Hubley.

"About 10 years into our relationship, we asked the kids, 'Do you want us to get married?' And they went, 'No!'" Hawn said at the time. "They love it. It was perfect the way it is; they didn't want any more trouble. They wanted us to be not married."

'Psychologically freeing': Russell and Hawn are among many who reject traditional marriage

Hawn says it's 'a joy' to work with partner Kurt Russell

The two met on the set of the 1968 film "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band," when Russell was a teenager; Hawn is five years his senior. They've worked together several times since then, including when they reunited on the set of the 1984 movie "Swing Shift," which kicked off their relationship.

They last worked together on Netflix's "The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two."

"I like Kurt when he's working, a lot. He's generous, he's good-natured, really talented and inventive and creative," Hawn told USA TODAY while promoting the film in 2020. "It's just a joy, really, to work with him."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Goldie Hawn reveals why she never married Kurt Russell