Kate Hudson on Being Single: 'It's Nice'

— -- Kate Hudson is enjoying being single for the first time in five years.

"It’s nice to get acquainted with myself alone," she told Harper's Bazaar. "You know, the goal when you get into a relationship is not to be out of the relationship. It’s to try to stay in the relationship. But if it doesn’t work, you can’t force things."

Hudson split with fiancé Matt Bellamy, the front man for the band Muse, at the end of last year. They were together four years and became engaged in April 2011.

"It's hard to let go of something, even when you know that it's not right," Hudson told Harper's. "I've chosen something in my life that I'm very comfortable with that goes against a lot of people's more traditional feelings. If something's not right, I don't believe in maintaining something for the sake of what's considered a traditional family, because I believe that there are different ways to raise children. It's far more effective to raise children in happy homes."

These days, Hudson is content to be at home alone with her two children, Ryder, 11, her son with Black Crows front man Chris Robinson, and Bing, four, her son with Bellamy.

"I'm at that age now. I really do feel very lucky," she said. "I've had my kids and my relationships. I've set my life down -- I'm in my house, and I'm alone with my children -- and I'm at peace, and that's a really nice feeling. All I really want in my life is to maintain that."

That makes going away from them to be on a film set especially tough.

"I think a lot of people, especially when you’re a woman, you have kids, and work on movies, it’s hard because you’re away from them," Hudson said. "There’s nothing lazy about it. You go to work, get on the first plane home even if it’s for eight hours, go back to work. I don’t want to be away from my family, I love it so much. I just enjoy being on movie sets."

Fortunately, she always carries a reminder of her two young men in her purse.

"I always have Lego men in my purse," she laughed. "When I’m traveling and I’m not with my kids, I look in my purse and there are, like, five Lego men."