Goldie Hawn reveals secret behind 40-year relationship with Kurt Russell

Goldie Hawn revealed that a healthy physical connection is the secret behind her 40-year relationship with Kurt Russell.

"You have to have good sex," she told E! News at her Love-In Gala celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The Goldie Hawn Foundation and MindUP last Friday.

The "Best Friends" actress, 78, explained to the outlet that sex deepens relationships.

"Because sex is something that connects you and creates more belonging," she said, claiming that "people who have healthy sexual relationships usually last a lot longer."

However, Hawn noted that intercourse alone isn't what does the trick.

"But it's not just because of the act, it's because of the warmth and the intimacy that it creates," she said.

Hawn also joked that just getting along can be the secret sauce to long-lasting love.

"You have to be nice to each other upon occasion," she laughed.

The "First Wives Club" star also cautioned that couples don't always agree — and that's OK.

"You know you're not the same person," she said. "You don't think the same way oftentimes. And you have to accept that, but you have to measure are we having fun, or is this something we want to do? Do we have laughs together? Do we share certain things? You don't have to share everything."

Hawn suggested that those looking for love should let go of unrealistic ideals of what a relationship should look like.

"We have a lot of expectation, I think, around relationships, but you have to like the person. That's very important," she said.

For Russell, he thinks that shared experiences are what make a partnership strong.

"Most people that have been together for a long time, I think, share one thing in common," Russell, 73, told E! "And that is that after that many years together, you will have experienced just about everything there is to experience together and understand all the ups and downs and what it means."

He continued, "I just love the fact that we met and we still doing it. We still like being together."

The "Elvis" actor and Hawn have never been married, though they have been together since 1983 and share son Wyatt Russell, 28.

Kurt also shares son Boston Russell with his ex-wife, Season Hubley, whom he was married to from 1979 to 1983, while Hawn shares two kids — Oliver and Kate Hudson — with her ex-husband Bill Hudson.

Hawn and Hudson were married from 1976 to 1982 and she was also married to Gus Trikonis from 1969 to 1976.

The Oscar winner and Russell initially met when she was 21 and he was 16, she told Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.

"And then years later we met up again and I liked him and I remembered that I liked him very much when I first met him," she shared. "But we both said we would never go out with another actor so it just shows you never can tell."

They ended up having their first date at the Playboy Club in Manhattan, which Russell detailed during an appearance on "Harry" in 2017.

"We eventually found our way upstairs, looking around at imaginary furniture and we were in the imaginary bedroom, now, and we are realistically having sex, when the police walked in because we had to break into the place to get in," Russell said.

"That was our first date," he added. "It was a lot of fun, I'll tell you what. I can't believe it was a long time ago."