Move over, Wolverine, it’s Hugh Jackman‘s soon to be ex-wife whose claws are coming out.
Not that Deborra-Lee Furness fired too hard a shot at the actor in the wake of filing for divorce May 23, almost two years since she and Jackman announced their separation after 27 years of marriage.
But her statement was a far cry from saying they were “blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” as they did when they dropped that bombshell in September 2023.
This time, Furness gave a shout-out to “everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal,” telling DailyMail.com that her belief in a higher power had helped her “navigate the breakdown of an almost three-decade marriage.”
She did not name names, so it’s unclear if her more recent characterization of events has anything to do with Jackman’s increasingly public romance with fellow Tony Award winner Sutton Foster.
The Australian actor has remained pretty quiet about the end of his marriage, which coincided with the run-up to the smash 2024 hit Deadpool & Wolverine, so the focus quickly pivoted to his always-entertaining friendship with costar Ryan Reynolds.
But until this week, Furness and Jackman have had nothing but the most positive things to say about each other—and their union—in public.
They met in 1995 on the set of the Australian TV series Correlli, a 10-episode drama in which Jackman played a traumatized prisoner, while Furness was the prison psychologist trying to help him recover his memory.
“We just had this amazing connection,” she said in 2020 on Anh’s Brush With Fame about her husband of, at the time, 24 years. “And I feel blessed that I experienced that I feel like I met my soulmate, whatever that is.”
And Jackman amiably subscribed to the “happy wife, happy life” philosophy that’s so popular to say but has proved rather difficult for a lot of celebrities to implement.
But the Oscar-nominated actor didn’t mind putting in the work, considering that’s how they got together—and stayed together—in the first place.
“My first job out of drama school—it was a massive break for me. I was really scared,” Jackman told Jess Cagle on People TV in 2017. “Deb, she was a big star. I get picked up, and Deb is in the front seat of the car. I’ll never forget. She took off her seatbelt and she turned around and put out her hand and took off her sunglasses and said, ‘Hi, I’m Deborra-Lee Furness, nice to meet you.’
“I remember thinking, ‘I like this girl.'”
Jackman has gushed about how everyone on set had a crush on Deb, but he was the lucky bloke who got to take her out.
“I knew very early. I knew before Deb knew, even when she tried to break up with me, I knew,” the Bad Education star shared in 2018 on the podcast Aussies in Hollywood, hosted by Jenny Cooney, a personal friend of the couple. “I managed to talk her out of it, thank God. I’m a very indecisive person, you know this about me, Deb really knows this about me. I can count on one hand the amount of times in my life anything has felt that clear to me.”
But with her, “I just knew 100 percent…I even knew when she was trying to work out reasons to break up with me…That is grace, as far as I’m concerned.”
Furness explained that, at the time, she simply wasn’t looking to get involved with anyone—especially an actor 13 years her junior. (She had actually been living in Los Angeles for awhile when, after a visit with a fortune teller who predicted “everything comes into place” if she returned to Australia, she decided to go back home. “What have I got to lose?” she remembered thinking.)
“I had just made my New Year’s resolution,” the Sydney native also recalled to Cooney on Aussies in Hollywood. “I said, ‘I am not dating any actors, and definitely not under 30.’ Meet my husband.”
That being said, Jackman told Cagle that he’s “literally the adult in the relationship,” while his wife is “just like a little kid. I’m the [one saying], ‘Babe, this is not a legal parking spot.’ ‘Oh, come on, Mr. Goody- Goody.'” (She also initially advised him to turn down the role of Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, but she’s since forgiven herself for being wrong that one time.)
Furness eventually broke her rule about not dating co-stars, at least during filming, but she had this persistent 26-year-old falling in love with her and they did have an “instant connection.”
Jackman said that he was having the “best experience” working with Furness even before they started dating.
“This was before we were romantically involved or had any idea that Deborra was interested,” he told Cooney. “There was a chemistry. And every time we had a scene together, it was unbelievable… Professionally, I’ve never had anything quite like that again.” Furness assured that the feeling was mutual. Though at first her thought was, “‘Who is this guy? Jack Hughman? I’ve never heard of him.’ And then when we get on the set it was like, you know, you’re playing tennis.”
He tried to ignore his feelings at first, and even spent a week avoiding any off-camera conversation, but that wasn’t sustainable.
“Deb and I were already best friends, and I realized, I’ve got a crush on my leading lady,” he told Cagle. “This is the thing you do not do. It’s unprofessional and embarrassing.”
But then he came up with a pretty slick move: Host a group dinner at his place.
“I invited 20 people,” Jackman recalled. “She came over and I said, ‘Deb, give me a hand with the dessert.’ My dad was a great cook, and he taught me how to make crepes suzette. It’s a good hour to make crepes suzette.”
Furness was the first to ask what his deal was, why he hadn’t talked to her for a week.
“I said, ‘I got a crush on you. I’ll get over it, I’m sorry,'” Jackman shared. “She goes, ‘Oh? Because I’ve got a crush on you too.’ I never in a million years thought she reciprocated.”
Their romance became the worst-kept secret on set and, 11 months later, they wed on April 11, 1996.
Furness was 40 when they got married and they started trying for a family right away, but there were some years of heartbreak and frustration ahead before they had kids.
“We struggled, a couple miscarriages, IVF—it’s not easy, particularly on Deb,” Jackman recalled to Cagle.
So, they opted for adoption, bringing home son Oscar in 2000 and daughter Ava in 2005. Both kids are biracial—a quality Jackman and Furness purposely sought out when they started the process.
“Oscar is a bit of everything—African-American, Caucasian, Hawaiian and Cherokee,” he told New Idea in 2007. “We specifically requested a bi-racial child because there was more of a need. People will wait 18 months to adopt a little blonde girl; meanwhile, bi-racial children are turned away. The same was true for Ava, she’s half Mexican, half German.”
Jackman reiterated as much to Cagle years later, saying, “Our motivation behind adopting was, ‘Where is the need?’ The biggest need is in mixed-race kids. I want to tell my kids that… it doesn’t matter what sexual [orientation] you are, it doesn’t matter what job you do, it doesn’t matter whether your hair is straight or curly, if you’re tall or short, man or woman, what race you are. What defines you as a human being is underneath all that.”
In the meantime, a lot of people remained rather hung up about Jackman’s sexual orientation, never mind his long-term relationship with Furness.
“It’s, to me, not the most interesting thing about a person, anyway,” Jackman said on Australia’s 60 Minutes in 2013, addressing a persistent rumor that he’s gay. “I do get frustrated for Deb, cause I see Deb go, ‘Ah, this is just crazy!'”
Furness added, “If he was gay, fine, he would say he’s gay. It’s annoying because it’s not true.”
“He’s been gay so many years,” she said with a laugh on the Sept. 29, 2020, episode of Anh’s Brush With Fame. “I was gay, too. You know when I did Shame? I was gay. They were shocked when I got married.” (In the 1988 film, she played a lawyer who, while on a motorcycle trip through the Australian outback, meets a teenage rape victim and encourages her to press charges against her attacker, leading to major issues with the perpetrator’s wealthy, connected family.)
“It just amazes me that these magazines continue to get away with it,” Furness marveled to Not an Overnight Success host Gus Worland in April 2022. “What they’re selling is schadenfreude. They are selling misery. People must be wanting to buy that other people are miserable because it makes them feel better about themselves.”
She dismissed the lies as “boring.”
And life went on, in all its complicated glory.
“When you find a partner in crime that you share, and you grow together—and life is tough as we know it, it’s not all good—and when you have someone there that is so supportive…you can really stand buck naked. You have to,” Furness explained to Ahn Do in 2020. “When you’ve got kids and life and whatever, you stand there buck naked, authentic, warts and all, this is who it is, and you’re loved, there’s nothing better.”
Jackman also appreciated traveling through life with a partner sharing all the highs and lows.
He told Ellen DeGeneres in 2016, with his 20th wedding anniversary coming up, that he was grateful that he met Furness when he was just starting out, before he was famous.
“Because,” he said, “everything that’s happened in my career and on-screen, off-screen, we’ve always done it together.”
See Jackman and Furness’ romance in pictures from happier times:
Instant Attraction
The Sydney-born actors first met in 1995 on the set of the Australian TV series Correlli.
Corelli‘s Most Wanted
After a few drinks one night, Hugh admitted to his costar that he was crushing on her—as was the rest of the crew.
True Love
To his pleasant surprise, Deborra returned the sentiment. Somehow, we are not surprised.
A Couple of Kids
The pair were all smiles in 1997, about a year after they tied the knot.
Can’t Keep His Hands to Himself
The two embraced each other during a sweet moment.
Sweet Cheeks
Not long after their 10th wedding anniversary, the Australian stars were still hot for each other.
Hollywood Outing
Deborra and daughter Ava Eliot and son Oscar Maximillian supported Hugh at his handprint and footprint ceremony in Hollywood in 2009.
Family Moment
Deborra and her kids were proud to cheer Hugh on at the ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
New York Charity Event
The family posed with Vivica A. Fox at the 7th annual Istar Charity Shootout at NYC’s Madison Square Garden in 2009.
Black Tie Preferred
The then-couple attended the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House in 2013.
The Night They MET
The classy couple were dressed to the nines at the 2014 Met Gala.
Lovely Family
The family enjoyed quality time at Disneyland.
Still Soaring
Deborra was Hugh’s date at the Eddie the Eagle premiere in Sydney in 2016.
(Originally published Oct. 12, 2020, at 4 a.m. PT)
