Kate Hudson has had her fair share of romances in the past, but she says it was a "disciplined" year off break from men –– including flirting! –– that led her to finding love with Danny Fujikawa.
The "Talk About Love" singer and her fiancé started dating in 2016, welcomed their daughter Rani Rose, five, two years later, and announced their engagement in September of 2021.
But before that, despite describing herself as "boy crazy," the How To Lose a Guy In Ten Days actress was single for almost four years. Looking back, she says her relationship with Danny would not have been possible without it.
During an appearance on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast, Kate reflected on her year-long ban from men, which came at the suggestion of her therapist. "I couldn't flirt, none of it, but it was great," she said, explaining: "I was at that pace where I was like, 'I don't want to keep repeating any patterns anymore."
As she further remembered not being able to partake in her habit of texting and flirting with guys for entertainment, the thrill of it, and having to reject those who asked for her number, she noted: "It was strangely empowering, because it got very uncomfortable for me in the beginning. The first couple of months my mojo [was down.]"
Kate further explained: "Because we were going through very specific types of therapy, it was really about figuring out certain things that were happening with me."
© Getty"Then I had this one sort of breakthrough that was very emotional that I don't think I would have been able to access if I had any distractions."
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Kate further shared that eventually "it allowed me to see things much more clearly," and that by the six month mark, she was no longer always taking to her phone to text men, or wondering who she might be able to see when she went out with friends. "There was no desire for me to do anything that had anything to do with potential flirtation."
© InstagramShe also recalled the shift she felt when it came to dating once she made it to the year, how she "didn't have the same attachment to it anymore," or got a thrill out of it, and she wasn't interested in the same kind of guys she had been before.
"I was so happy single, I was single for three and a half years," she continued, before declaring: "If I didn't do that, I would have never ended up with Danny."
© Kate HudsonShe explained: "Because Danny, he's just such a good man, and I'm not sure I was attracted to the good man. I mean I was attracted to good men, but you know, like, the uncomplicated… I liked a feisty, wild type."
"Whereas Danny has that in him, [but] his values are very sturdy, and he's such a lovely person. I would have never, I think, allowed that in if I didn't take those three years of being so happy in my life alone."
