He’s all muscles and toughness on the big screen, but Hugh Jackman broke down while discussing his father on US TV last night.
Hugh was being interviewed by US current affairs program 60 Minutes when talk turned to his dad, who raised the actor and his four siblings alone after their mother walked out.
“My father is a rock. My father is my rock,” Hugh said, tearing up. “It’s where I learned everything about loyalty, dependability, being there day in, day out, no matter what … It’s always about the family.”
Hugh was just eight years old when his mother moved back to England, leaving his dad and five kids in the family home in Sydney’s northern suburbs.
The actor suspects his father blames himself for the split, and thinks that is why he always tells Hugh to put wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their kids Oscar and Ava first.
“It’s always, ‘How’s Deb?’ It’s not about work,” Hugh said. “And I think that’s him living with probably some of his regrets.
“And feelings of maybe he at the wrong time put too much in his career. And he doesn’t want me to make me that mistake. In his gentle way, he always reminds me this the most important thing.”
Hugh opened up about his mother’s departure in the November issue of The Weekly.
Although he has an excellent relationship with his mother now, he admitted some parts of his childhood were hard.
“At the time, it was difficult,” he said. “One of the main things I remember is that horrible feeling that people were talking about you and looking at you because it was odd for the mother to leave.
“For many years, I thought it was not going to be forever, so I clung on to that. Up until about the age of 12 or 13, I thought Mum and Dad would get back together.
“Finally realising it wasn’t going to happen was probably the toughest time to be honest.”
