Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including one for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in 2003. She has since appeared in films such as Raising Helen (2004), The Skeleton Key (2005), You, Me and Dupree (2006), Fool's Gold (2008) andBride Wars (2009). She has played a recurring role on the musical comedy-drama television series Glee as Cassandra July.

Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award–winning actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, an actor, comedian, and musician.Her parents divorced eighteen months after her birth; she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Snowmass, Colorado, and Pacific Palisades, California, by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell. Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers Russell to be her father.Her biological father has indicated that he has made several efforts to connect with Kate and Oliver, but neither has reciprocated. Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to". She has four half-siblings: Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams; Lalania Hudson, from his relationship with another woman; and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Russell.

Hudson is of Italian (from her paternal grandmother), English, Hungarian Jewish, German, as well as very distant Dutch descent. She was raised in her maternal grandmother's Jewish religion. In 1997, she graduated from Crossroads, a college preparatory school in Santa Monica. She was accepted to New York University but chose to pursue an acting career instead of an undergraduate degree.

Hudson married Chris Robinson, the frontman for The Black Crowes, on December 31, 2000 in Aspen, Colorado. The couple lived in a house that was once owned by director James Whale and traveled together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours. Hudson gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson in January 2004. On August 14, 2006, Hudson's publicist announced that Hudson and Robinson had separated. On November 18, 2006, Robinson filed divorce papers, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on October 22, 2007.

In spring 2010, Hudson began dating Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy.^[19][20][21] In February 2011, Hudson bought a house in London, England. A Daily Mail source reported that she planned to live in London with Bellamy six months a year. Hudson and Bellamy became engaged in April 2011. Their son together, Bingham Hawn Bellamy, was born in July 2011.

Hudson has also said that she does not enjoy seeing herself on screen, specifying that she "gets cold... shakes and... sweats" when watching her performances for the first time.

In July 2006, Hudson sued the English version of the National Enquirer after it reported she had an eating disorder, describing her as "painfully thin". Hudson said the tabloid's statements were "a blatant lie" and she was concerned about the impact the false report could have on impressionable young women. The newspaper apologized and compensated her.She, like her mother, practices Buddhism.