Kate Hudson Celebrates Her 'Patchwork Family,' Says Daughter Rani and Her Exes' Kids 'Are Like Sisters' (Exclusive)

Kate Hudson has found harmony in her blended family.

In this week’s PEOPLE cover story, the actress and singer — who will release her debut album, Glorious, on Friday, May 17 — opens up the unique dynamic she’s had raising her sons Ryder, 20, and Bingham, 12, and daughter Rani, 5.

Over the years Hudson, who is currently engaged to Rani’s dad, 37-year-old musician Danny Fujikawa, amicably co-parented her sons with her famous exes: Ryder’s father, the Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson, 57, and Bingham’s dad, Muse rocker Matt Bellamy, 45.

“We are very connected, and we are very close,” Hudson, 45, says. “Love can change form. It’s interesting when you have that modern family; there’s so much love for all the kids.” 

Robinson is also dad to Ryder’s sister, Cheyenne, 14, from his third marriage; meanwhile, Bellamy also has a daughter, Bingham’s 3-year-old sister Lovella, with his wife Elle Evans, who is currently expecting another baby.

“I think the thing that's so unique about my life is that in this very patchwork family, we all have figured it out … The kids feel like they have this huge family,” says Hudson, who adds that her exes' daughters and Rani “are like sisters … There is something that has been able to be nurtured in our family that is personally what I think is, it's very rare.”

Hudson says that she recently watched over Bellamy’s daughter Lovella while he and Elle were away.

“I'm like, ‘Yeah, come, bring her over,’” Hudson recalls. “And I'm sitting with all the kids and I'm like, I am so happy we have this real family unit that’s big. It’s beautiful. Everybody’s open to it and understands it’s the most mature thing for the kids. And you can see it in them — they feel loved, they feel protected, they feel safe.”

Hudson has taken cues from her own parents, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Hawn’s longtime love who raised Hudson from a young age.

“Their strongest value is their dedication to that unit. They’ve been through everything together, and it’s such an amazing thing to see, especially as they get older, how beautiful their relationship is. It’s so loving and caring,” she says. “They’ve stuck with it. It’s like a very rare Hollywood story. They’re in it forever. It’s wild.”

Love is a central through-line on Hudson’s first record Glorious.

“I was like, ‘This is just a life well-loved,’ ” Hudson says of the songs on the album. “Through all of the highs and the lows, then all the stuff that comes with what it is to love a partner, your friends, your children . . . What a glorious thing to have so much love.”

For more on Kate Hudson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.