Not everyone in the world can say that their acting credits include the likes of Wolverine, Jean Valjean, P.T. Barnum, Blackbeard, and Gabriel Van Helsing. Only Hugh Jackman can humblebrag about his nearly ten appearances as Logan, his Oscar-nominated turn as Valjean (featuring live singing!), and his Golden Globe nominations for The Greatest Showman, Les Misérables, and Kate and Leopold. It doesn’t stop there. Jackman has taken dramatic turns in dozens of other films including Australia, The Fountain, and most recently Reminiscence on HBOMax.
When he’s not busy brooding on-screen, Jackman can occasionally be found lighting up Broadway in musicals like The Boy from Oz and even his own one-man show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, he was set to star in a revival of The Music Man opposite Sutton Foster, which has since been pushed to 2022. There’s basically nothing Hugh Jackman can’t do.
Who is Hugh Jackman Married To?
If you think being a celebrity as famous as Hugh Jackman might be difficult, try being his wife. Jackman has been married to Australian actress Deborra-Lee Furness for 25 years and she is still questioned about her husband’s sexuality. On the Australian interview series Anh’s Brush With Fame, she recently said, “It’s just wrong. It’s like someone saying to Elton John, ‘He’s straight.’ I’m sure he’d be pissed.” When told that she’s “lucky” to be married to Jackman, Furness added that “People don’t realize that it’s actually rude to say that.”
Furness grew up in Melbourne, Australia and went on to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. After graduating, she landed roles in Australian shows like Kings and The Flying Doctors and got her big break when she was cast in the movie Shame, for which she won a Best Actor award from the Film Critics Circle of Australia. Other TV and film roles followed, including one in Disney’s Newsies in 1992, but it wasn’t until she was cast in the 1995 crime drama Correlli that she met her future husband.
Despite being 13 years older than Jackman, the two hit it off right away and were married in 1996, vowing to never spend more than two weeks apart. They both continued acting and eventually, Furness branched out to explore charity work and child advocacy, specifically international adoption. After suffering two miscarriages while trying to start a family, Jackman and Furness ultimately adopted two children, a son in 2000 and a daughter in 2005.
Furness established the volunteer-led campaign National Adoption Awareness Week in 2008 and the Adopt Change program in 2014, both of which aim to increase awareness about adoption and the global orphan crisis. She was the National Finalist Australian of the Year in 2015 and continues to work as a child advocate and adoption campaigner.
In April of 2021, Jackman posted a touching tribute to his wife on Instagram, saying that being married to Furness is “as natural as breathing.” He went on to say, “We’ve only just begun. Deb, I love you with all my heart!” Unlike so many other Hollywood relationships, it looks like theirs is poised to last.