We report helium and carbon isotope and abundance characteristics of solfataras and steam fumaroles located within and around the central summit caldera of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. Kilauea fluids are characterized by high‐³He ‘hotspot’ ³He/4He ratios of between 13.7 and 15.9 RA (where RA = air ³He/4He) together with CO2/³He and δ13C(CO2) values of 4.6–8.4 (×109) and −3.4 to −3.6‰, respectively. We combine our measurements with CO2 flux estimates to reconstruct the ³He characteristics of Kilauea parental magma allowing an estimate of the ³He characteristics of the Kilauea mantle source. Derived ³He contents of ∼3.3×10−11 cm³STP/g indicate that Kilauea magma sources are highly depleted in primordial ³He, compared to model estimates of magma sources supplying both spreading ridges and ocean islands. Our results are consistent with the notion that the Hawaiian plume has undergone extensive degassing prior to incorporation into the source region of Kilauea volcano. We suggest that degassing of mantle plumes, at Hawaii and possibly elsewhere, can act as an important control on the range of ³He/4He ratios observed to characterize ocean island basalts (OIBs); in turn, this can affect the relationship between helium isotopes and other tracers of mantle sources. Plume degassing can also explain the puzzling observation that the ³He content of most OIBs is less than that of mid‐ocean ridge basalts (MORBs).