For Bill Hudson, this was a wedding to dream about. His new bride was one of the most gorgeous, and famous, women on the planet – Goldie Hawn, Hollywood’s favourite ditzy blonde. And she was eight months pregnant with the child they both longed for.

‘I was consumed with love,’ he says, recalling a perfect day – and night. ‘I didn’t think life could get any better.  I had just married the woman I loved and I felt like the luckiest guy on Earth.

‘Then Goldie turned to me and  whispered, “Are you sure we did the right thing?”

Before they were married: Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson at the Academy Awards in 1975

‘My heart froze. I asked her what she meant and she replied, “I want this to be an open marriage.” ’

Delivered on their wedding day in 1976, it was – as he would soon discover – the first of many Goldie Hawn bombshells, the result, he says, of ‘a series of devastating character flaws’.

Hudson is the father of Hawn’s eldest children, actress Kate Hudson – who has become a star in her own right thanks to films including Almost Famous – and Oliver Hudson, who  is a successful television actor in  America on the popular drama Rules  Of Engagement.

Sitting in a beachside bar near his Malibu home, Hudson clearly feels a man abandoned, under siege, even.

‘For years I have been living with the hell of Goldie manipulating the story of our time together,’ he sighs. ‘She gives interviews every time she has a film out, and now Kate does too, and they present this story to the world about how I “abandoned” the family and how her partner [actor Kurt Russell] is the only “real” man in their lives.’

Now he has written a book with a title that speaks for itself: 2 Versions: The Other Side Of Fame & Family. But why now?

‘I have lived with it for long enough. I never wanted to get into a public slanging match but I have other children now and they deserve the right to get to know Kate and Oliver and I want the world to know the truth about Goldie.

‘I am sick and tired of her portraying this squeaky-clean image to the world when the reality of her life is so different. She is manipulative, cruel and selfish.  I have done this book because I want to show the flip side of the Hollywood dream. I got caught up in Goldie’s world and I am still paying a painful price.’

Hudson is still ruggedly handsome at 62. His face is lined, but he retains the tanned good looks of a former teen idol.

He first met Hawn in 1975 when he was in a band, the Hudson Brothers, with his real brothers Brett and Mark. The band toured with the Osmonds and David Cassidy and had their own TV show.

Goldie was already a huge star, earning more than $1 million a movie for comedies such as There’s A Girl In My Soup (alongside Peter Sellers), The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg’s first film) and Shampoo (co-starring Warren Beatty).

They met each other on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.

‘Goldie was up in first as I was, but the band were back in economy so I spent most of the flight back there, drinking with the guys. About 30 minutes out, I was told to go back to first to prepare for landing and my brother Brett said, “Hey, why don’t you go talk to Goldie? She’s hot!” ’

Hudson, already a young star, was no wallflower, enjoying high-profile affairs with some of the most beautiful women of the era including Ali MacGraw (‘she remains a great friend to this day’) and Candice Bergen.

Open marriage: Goldie and Bill at their wedding in 1976. She was pregnant at the time. The couple had two children, Kate and Oliver, together

‘I had a nice wine buzz on, so I went to chat to her. In the flesh she was luminous. Her skin was perfect and she had this mane of blonde hair and that wonderful throaty laugh that got you grinning the second you heard it. The attraction was instant for both of us. She agreed to see me for dinner that night.’

But Hudson says when he turned up at the restaurant on that first date, Hawn had barely sat down before she recognised a handsome man sitting nearby.

He recalls: ‘We went over and Goldie was chatting with him and the girl he was with and the guy was seriously rude to me. He had no interest in talking to me and I just thought he was a jerk. They got up to leave and Goldie told me they were called Gina and Gus and were siblings. I said, “Well, Gus is an a**h***.”

‘Goldie didn’t change expression but said, “Um, that’s my husband.” That was how I learned she was still married to Gus Trikonis, a movie director. I should have taken that as a sign of things to come. Goldie liked to have many lovers in her life, even when she was married. She would always say to me, “I’m a free spirit.”

‘I’ve always been a one-man woman. I wanted a family, a  conventional life. I remember Goldie’s dad Rut telling me, “She needs a different man for each of her moods.” ’

Surely that is an odd thing for a father to say about his daughter? Hudson shrugs: ‘Yes, but it was the truth. The old man was trying to warn me. Goldie is a woman incapable of being faithful to one man.’

What about Kurt Russell?

He flinches: ‘I don’t want to go there, but let’s just say it was an open secret in Hollywood that, certainly in the early days, she was with other men. Kurt and Goldie have never married and maybe that openness has something to do with it. Goldie would tell me she couldn’t imagine only sleeping with one man for the rest of  her life.’

Golden girls: Hawn with her famous daughter Kate Hudson at a film premier in 2009

However, Hudson says the romantic side of their relationship was ‘electric’.

He recalls: ‘The first time we kissed outside the restaurant everything seemed to stop. We stood apart and looked into each other’s eyes and we both knew something special had happened.

‘She is a highly physical woman; our relationship sizzled. We made love everywhere. The first two weeks we hardly got out of bed. That was the one thing that never failed between us, even when times got bad. The 𝑠e𝑥 was always mind-blowing.

‘We would make love in fancy restaurants, backstage at concerts, on planes, trains and automobiles. The physical attraction between us was animalistic. In life when you find someone like that there is little you can do to help yourself. It was intense.

‘Goldie is a woman who loves pleasure. For a guy, that is an exciting thing. But I would come to realise that Goldie’s pleasure came before everything else. She would talk about herself in the third person: “What Goldie wants, Goldie gets” was one of her favourite sayings.

‘There would be times we would get into arguments and she would say, “Goldie isn’t happy!” or “Goldie is NOT pleased by this.” It was imperious. It is typical of Hollywood that when someone reaches a level of fame no one disagrees with them. Goldie was pandered to and became spoilt.’

The worst rows were about Hawn’s desire to see other men.

‘We spent three weeks in my bed and then she suddenly told me she had to go home [to Bel Air] because her boyfriend Bruno was coming.’

Lovers: Goldie with Kurt Russell, for whom she left Hudson. In the 1984 film Swing Shift

He was German actor Bruno Wintzell, Hawn’s  co-star on the film The Girl From Patrovka.

‘She was literally with me one day, telling me I was the love of her life, then she was with Bruno the next.

‘We had our first blazing row. I yelled at her and said, “How can you say you love me more than anyone you’ve ever loved and now you’re heading off to Bruno?”

‘She glared at me. I walked out. Two weeks later she had her assistant call me to say Bruno had gone. Like a fool I took her back. She fell sobbing into my arms and told me how much she loved and missed me. She said: “You are my soul mate. But I believe in an open relationship, in open marriage.” ’

He says she confessed to an affair with Warren Beatty. ‘Goldie told me she slept with Warren when she was doing the movie Dollars and was still married to Gus. I asked her how she managed to fit it in as Gus was making a documentary about the film. I said to her, “How did you sleep with Warren while your husband was on the set?”

‘She looked at me, cool as you like, and said, “Oh, we managed it.” ’

Why did he stay with her when she admitted she could not be faithful?

He looks down: ‘It sounds dumb now but I truly believed I could change her. I thought things were so good between us that she  would change.’

He was further encouraged when she became pregnant and describes that period – including their wedding when Hawn was eight months pregnant – as ‘the happiest time of my life’.

The young family moved to Europe shortly after Oliver’s birth and took a house near Regent’s Park in London. Hudson was working with the late Sir Bob Monkhouse on a variety show called Bonkers!, while Hawn made a string of films including The Duchess And The Dirtwater Fox.

Hudson says: ‘The first two years of Oliver’s life were blissful. We were such a family unit. We spent time together, we were a team.’

He remained in London while Hawn went to Italy to make a film called Viaggio Con Anita.

‘I was content to play the househusband. But when I went to Italy to visit I started hearing rumours that Goldie was having an affair with her co-star Giancarlo Giannini. I confronted her about it and she swore blind nothing had happened. I believed her. We were newlyweds with a new baby. I couldn’t believe she would cheat so early on.’

Happy family: Goldie Hawn with actor Kurt Russell, left, and Kate and Oliver Hudson

Rifts began to appear: ‘Goldie started getting up to tricks. She would disappear. She started becoming more distant. One day she called me when I was in London with baby Oliver. She was promoting her movie Foul Play.

She said, “Listen, I’m pregnant with your baby and I’ve always wanted two children so I’m having this one.” Then, in her baby-doll voice she said, “Gotta go.” ’

‘I was stunned. The first pregnancy had been so close, so romantic. Now she was telling me this in such a matter-of-fact way. We were drifting apart and we knew it. Goldie’s career was soaring. She had signed to do Private Benjamin and was the major bread-winner. I stayed home with Oliver and then, three years later, with Kate. I was happy to do so.

‘Kate looked so much like Goldie. She was a princess from the start. I knew she would be an actress. She loved the mirror and, as she grew, she had an aloofness about her. Just like her mother.’

It was at this point that Hawn began discussing ‘Brand Goldie.’

‘The great loves of Goldie’s life were herself and money, money, money. She loved money and loved being in control. I learned it was her way or the highway. I ended up taking the highway.’Bill Hudson

‘She is a savvy businesswoman and money is very important to her. She was calculated about her career and her image in a way women in Hollywood hadn’t been. Goldie has this ditzy image, but she’s smart. She looked over contracts and would triple-check anything to do with money. She started demanding huge salaries. When I asked her why she was putting so much focus on her career rather than our kids, she would say, “I am building Brand Goldie. This is what will get our kids through college.”

‘The great loves of Goldie’s life were herself and money, money, money. She loved money and loved being in control. I learned it was her way or the highway. I ended up taking the highway.’

Hudson says he walked out in the summer of 1980 when he learned Hawn had again cheated on him with dashing French actor Yves Renier, an extra on the set of Private Benjamin.

He explains: ‘I was at home looking after the  kids and a brown envelope arrived. When I opened it there were pictures of Goldie acting overly familiar with this handsome guy. There was no note. Nothing. I tried calling her in France but her assistant kept making ever more crazy excuses. At 7am  I would call her room and no one would pick up.

‘I confronted her when she came back. There was a showdown in the kitchen. I pulled out the photographs and put them on the table. I said, “Who is Yves Renier – and don’t you lie to me.” She burst into tears. I knew, I just knew. I left that night.’

A few days later Hudson returned to pick up some clothes: ‘I walked into the house and there was a man standing there. In the kitchen. He walked over, held out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Yves.” She moved on that fast.’

Loving arms: Bill Hudson with a young Kate in the early eighties. He describes himself as a one-man woman who was desperate for a family

At first, he says, the divorce arrangements were amicable. In 1983, however, Hawn met Kurt  Russell and, according to Hudson, ‘our whole relationship took a  nose dive’.

Hawn has lived with Russell ever since and they have a 25-year-old son, Wyatt.

Hudson says: ‘From the moment Kurt came on the scene my role as father to Kate and Oliver was usurped. Goldie told the kids to call him “Pa”. She began to craft this happy family unit.

‘By this time she was a major star, America’s sweetheart. She needed a “narrative” and I became the big  bad wolf.’

In a series of interviews promoting a string of hit films – Bird On A Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, The Out-Of-Towners – Hawn would talk about Hudson ‘walking out’ on the family.

It is at this point that his eyes fill with tears: ‘I get emotional and very angry,’ he says, pulling out a sheaf of legal letters that he says proves he fought for visitation rights to the children. (He reprints the legal letters over 27 pages in his book).

‘Goldie went out of her way to make things difficult. She was the big star jetting around. I’d arrange to pick the kids up and would get to the house and they wouldn’t be there.

‘I arranged a holiday in Hawaii and when the day came I arrived at Goldie’s house to find she’d taken the children off to her lodge in Colorado.

‘Goldie played havoc with my emotions. She blocked me seeing my children. First Kate, then Oliver became distant. I fought for custody of the kids. Why would I do that if I didn’t want to see them?

Calculating: Bill believes Goldie did everything she could to keep his children away from her

‘Kate is her mother’s child. She has a harshness about her. She has aligned herself with her mother and perpetuated this story about me abandoning the family. That simply isn’t true. I fought legally and I physically turned up to see them.

‘But Goldie and Kurt thwarted me at every turn. I feel they used their money to take the kids away from me.

‘Kate grew up a pampered Hollywood princess. She needed some drama in her back story and I became that drama.’

Hudson claims he never took a penny from Hawn. She was worth around £6 million at the time of the divorce: ‘I ended up giving her a cheque for $500,000 [about £350,000] for her share in our Malibu house. I didn’t want a dime from her and never took one.

‘She got the big house in Pacific Palisades. She is a canny businesswoman in all areas of her life.’

Hudson went on to marry another actress, Cindy Williams, and have two more children, Emily, 29, and Zachary, 25. The couple divorced in 2000. He has a five-year-old daughter Lalania from a long-term girlfriend. Today he describes himself as ‘resolutely single’.

He has not spoken to Kate, now 32, or Oliver, 35, for years. He begins to weep when discussing the fact that Kate has just had  her second child, son Bing, with her British fiance Matt Bellamy, the singer and guitarist in the rock group Muse. (Her first son Ryder, seven, was with singer Chris Robinson.)

‘I’ve not met either of Kate’s kids. They are my grandchildren and that  is bad enough, but my other kids  are suffering.

‘Lalania talks about “my sister and brother” but she’s never met any of them. She deserves the right to know her relatives.

‘I just want the family to be together. My mum is 88 and dying. I have written to Goldie repeatedly, the last time just a couple of months ago. I asked her, “Can’t we just put all the drama behind us and start afresh?” She didn’t bother to respond.’

Later, walking on the beach – just ten minutes from Hawn’s £3.4 million home – Hudson says: ‘If I was to say one thing to Goldie it is that I wish she would remember the good times we had. There is still time to be friends.

‘I want people to hear my side of the story. But I also want to hold out an olive branch to Goldie and tell her I still care deeply for her. You can’t have the sort of love we had and not still care. I wish she would just sit down with me, over a glass of wine like in the old days, and sort this mess out. If not for my sake, then for the sake of the kids and grandkids.’

2 Versions: The Other Side Of Fame And Family, by Bill Hudson with Dave Smitherman, is published by Dailey Swan Publishing on November 30. Pre-order copies are available priced at £12.50 on www.amazon.co.uk.

Like mother like daughter: Kate has never met her half siblings who are desperate to meet her. Bill has said he would love to meet his grandchildren