Forty years of unwedded bliss! Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have an enduring love story that’s lasted for decades, but they never felt it was necessary to get walk down the aisle.

“At that time, we constantly got asked, ‘When are you going to get married? Why aren’t you married?’” Russell, 71, recalled in Hawn’s Variety cover story, which was published on Wednesday, March 8. “And we were like, ‘Why does anybody care about that?’ We’d asked our kids if they cared about it. They didn’t. We didn’t.”

Hawn, 77, and Russell, initially met on the set of 1966’s The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966, nearly 17 years before they began dating. After the Overboard costars teamed up onscreen for 1983’s Swing Shift, they entered a relationship. The couple — who share son Wyatt Russell, 36 — also enjoyed blending their families. The First Wives Club actress shares children Oliver Hudson, 46, and Kate Hudson, 43, with ex-husband Bill Hudson, while Russell coparents son Boston Russell, 43, with ex-wife Season Hubley.

Growing their family has frequently been a source of great pride for the Christmas Chronicles actors.

“You’ve got to work for a living, stay compassionate and stay realistic and I’m passing that on because that was what my father taught me: ‘Stay in reality. Don’t get taken away with everything. The rest of it is up to them,’” Hawn told Variety of being a role model to her children and grandchildren. “Being there for them and knowing that they’re going to have to work stuff out themselves, as hard as it is.”

Hawn and Russell have also remained committed to one another through the years.

“Kurt is extraordinarily brilliant and creative and collaborative — not in the kitchen,” the Snatched star gushed to the outlet in Wednesday’s profile. “But really he’s just amazing. … Kurt and I are very similar. He doesn’t consider himself a movie star. Nor do I. Neither one of us walks around thinking about that stuff.”

Hawn and Russell, while continuing to remain relationship goals, have been long candid about their decision not to tie the knot.

“A lasting relationship isn’t about marriage. It’s about compatibility and communication. And you both need to want it to work,” the Washington, D.C. native previously told Porter magazine in 2015. “If one person does not want it to work, it isn’t going to work. Intention is the key. It’s also about not losing yourself in each other. Being together, two pillars holding up the house and the roof, and being different, not having to agree on everything, learning how to deal with not agreeing. Everything’s a choice.”

She added at the time: “[Kurt] came from three sisters and a very strong family unit. I came from one sister and two parents and a big family unit. That’s what we care about. We talked about relationships and commonality early on. We had nannies, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve both been working. But we were very present with our children. It’s the same way we grew up.”