Trigger Warning: This article discusses pregnancy loss.
Hugh Jackman, 56, and and his ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, boast successful careers in their own right, but away from the spotlight they’re devoted parents to two children.
However, the journey to parenthood wasn’t an easy one for the former couple. They struggled to start a family with Deb going through several miscarriages and failed rounds of IVF.
“We did IVF and Deb had a couple of miscarriages. I’ll never forget it, the miscarriage thing… It happens to one in three pregnancies. But it’s very, very rarely talked about. It’s almost secretive,” Hugh explained of their heartbreaking fertility journey during an appearance on the Katie Couric talk show in 2012.
“It’s a good thing to talk about it. It’s more common and it is tough. There’s a grieving that you have to go through,” he added.
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While they always wanted to adopt, Hugh and Deborra-Lee fast-tracked their plans after realising they wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally. They initially started to look at adopting within Australia but were forced to move their search to America as a result of complicated local adoption laws.
They are now the proud parents to 19-year-old daughter, Ava Eliot Jackman, and 24-year-old son, Oscar Maximilian Jackman.
“I don’t think of them as adopted – they’re our children. We feel things happened the way they are meant to. Obviously, biologically wasn’t the way we were meant to have children,” the Wolverine star told the Herald Sun of his family unit.
“Now, as we go through life together, sure there are challenges, but everyone’s in the right place with the right people. It sounds airy-fairy, but it’s something we feel very deeply.”
After going through the arduous adoption process herself, Deb was inspired to use her platform to raise awareness and become an adoption advocate, campaigning to change international adoption laws to make it easier for loving families to welcome in-need children into their homes.
“I can’t think of anything more important than ensuring that every child in this world has at least one person who has their best interests at heart, someone who cares about them so they know they are loved and valued,” the actress explained in an impassioned essay for The Australian Women’s Weekly in 2011.
She continued, “Every child deserves to be educated and nurtured so they can grow in a positive way and be able to eventually become a happy and contributing member of their community.”
Keep scrolling as we take a look at the Jackman family album!
“I don’t think of them as adopted ― they’re our children. Deb and I are believers in… I suppose you could call it destiny. We feel things happened the way they are meant to,” Hugh told the Herald Sun of his family.
“Obviously, biologically wasn’t the way we were meant to have children. Now, as we go through life together, sure there are challenges, but everyone’s in the right place with the right people.”
Ava seen arriving in Japan with her mum in 2019.
The most recent snap of Hugh and Deborra-Lee’s son Oscar was taken at 2018 US Open.
Oscar Maximilian Jackman, now 24, joined the Jackman clan after his birth in California in May 2000.
After struggling to fall pregnant naturally and going through several rounds of IVF, Hugh and Deb decided to look to adoption to start their family.
The family divided their time between New York and Sydney.
In 2014, Deb’s tireless campaigning around changing stringent adoption legislation was acknowledged after she won the NSW Australian Of The Year award.
“Children are our most vulnerable citizens. They have to depend on us grown-ups to make the best decisions for their wellbeing. There are too many orphans in the world and we cannot process families fast enough. Communities need to be strengthened economically to prevent child abandonment,” Deb explained in an essay for The Australian Women’s Weekly.
“Any children who don’t have a permanent family should be placed in foster care or small group homes rather than large institutions.”
Nothing beats a ride on dad’s shoulders! Hugh carries around Ava during an outing to Sydney’s Bondi Beach in 2012.
Ava Eliot Jackman, now 19, joined the family in 2005.
Meet the Jackmans! Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness with their daughter Ava and son Oscar.
