Hugh Jackman is one of our very favorite famous dads, but in a new interview with the Herald Sun he reveals that his journey to fatherhood wasn’t an easy one.
Looking forward to starting a family, Hugh recalls the disappointment he and his wife Deborra Lee Furness felt when they discovered they couldn’t conceive.
“It was painful. It’s not easy. You put a lot of time and effort into it, so it’s emotional. I think any parent can relate – trying to have children is wonderful and when you feel as though that’s not going to happen, there’s a certain anxiety that goes with it.”
The Wolverine star says that he and Deborra had always planned on adopting, but when they “decided we’d had enough of ivf” it ended up happening sooner than they’d expected.
As it turns out, the handsome actor reveals, adoption was their destiny all along.
“From the moment we started the adoption process, all the anxiety went away. I don’t think of them [son Oscar, 11, and daughter Ava, 6] 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. 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. It sounds airy-fairy, but it’s something we feel very deeply.”
So is their family-of-four now complete? Well… probably.
“We thought we’d have a number of kids. But travelling and being hands-on parents, which is what we try to be, isn’t easy,” he admits. “That conversation hasn’t been tabled for about 12 months, which is probably a good way of saying it’s not going to happen.”
It may not always be easy, but the devoted dad is quick to add that it is well worth it.
“Kids are the greatest joy. No matter what’s going on in the day, you can walk in that front door and it all goes away. Particularly with Ava – she’s a mini-Deb and so funny. She said to me the other day, ‘I’m just like Mum. I’m always right!’ And you know what? She is.”
I am a mother of a 14 year-old boy, who I was blessed to adopt at birth, and I totally understand the “it was destiny” thing. I found out as a young teenager that I couldn’t have children, but it didn’t really didn’t start bothering me until I got married…I guess because usually, after marriage you start a family. I was so sad, a little angry and felt like I was a failure because I couldn’t couldn’t give my husband a child, but mostly I just couldn’t imagine not being a mother. All those feelings disappeared the moment I held my son for the first time in that hospital. I just felt in that instant, that it was destiny…that I was meant to be the mother of THIS little boy. Even though I have a very open adoption arrangement with his birth mother, and I adore her…I have never felt that my son was adopted. He is my son, who just came into my life a different way.
musiclover, I love your story.
Anonymous, I’ve never heard rumors about Hugh being gay. Not that I care, but I choose not to believe that.
To the PP saying they couldn’t conceive because he is gay – even if he IS gay, they could still conceive through IUI or IVF. And there are several articles saying they did several rounds of IVF and suffered two miscarriages – so maybe check your facts before writing stuff. And who cares if he’s gay or not gay? His sexuality is none of our business. He seems like a great father, and I think that was the whole point of this article.
as I do think they are great parents yet I wish they would stop lying to everybody as to why they adopted. owing up about your sexuality is only going to teach your kids that you should not make believe for the sake of publicity.
What are you talking about? Why do you think he is lying? I don’t understand…
Unless you yourself (1) are male; and (2) have inserted one of your body parts into one of Hugh Jackman’s orifices, you have no idea what his sexuality is.
I find it a bit ironic that you want someone to talk about their sexuality yet choose to make your accusation under the cover of “anonymous.” First of all, you and no one else has the right to demand to know what a person’s sexual orientation is. That is the choice of each individual. Second, you have no proof what his sexual orientation is – you are repeating rumors. I don’t know what his orientation is nor does it matter to me. What is clear from the interviews I have seen with Hugh Jackman is that he loves his wife deeply as he has stated many times. By the way, your last sentence makes little sense, even if you read it as “owning” rather the “owing” you wrote.
Wonderful family:) Anon..what do you mean about them lying about their sexuality?
@Annonymous I don’t think They’re lying at all we don’t know the whole story
After taking 13 years to have our grandson and finding out that there would be no more bios, my daughter and son-in-law jumped quickly into adoption mode. It was an open adoption that happened very fast with our family blessed with a newborn girl. The only time we even remember that she is adopted is when someone asks where she got her curly hair. My daughter just smiles and says “from her birth mother”. The whole adoption happened so easy and quick it seems that it was just meant to be.
i love them so much,and i wish i could make a family like they have one day:)
I find anonymous’ comments disgusting and ignorant, here a man is talking about his wonderful family and she decides he adopted because he is gay?!? I hate to tell you that gay men have babies the old fashioned way all the time. I am the daughter of a gay man and since I was born a before IVF was even discovered so it is possible.
Calling it ‘destiny’ is really awful for his ‘kids’.
The Jackmans promised their son’s mother that they would have an open adoption if she agreed to an adoption. They lied. She was so distraught, she committed suicide.
Wonder how their son feels about he and his dead mother’s ‘destiny’.
These people are just selfish! Buying babies is not destiny!
Yeah…this story came from The Enquirer, which as we all know is such a reliable source of information, lol!
It’s not buying a baby. Adoption is very expensive. If you are curious just go to the adoption sites and they will give you estimated costs. Adoption is a lovely form of destiny and the Enquirer and such are only printed rags.
Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness are hypocrites. Few know about the open adoption agreement Hugh and Deborah had with their now adopted child Oscar’s biological mother. Hugh and Deborah promised an open adoption and then broke their promise while taking the child back to Australia with them. The biological mother in her greatest despair committed suicide.
Hugh Jackman one of Hollywoods doting dads? One of your favorite famous dads? Perhaps he will not be now that you all know the truth about how Hugh and his wife Deborah Lee Furness pulled a fast one on one of their adopted children’s mothers.
I wonder how Deborah Lee Furness would feel if she had a child of her own and some “famous” couple did that to her? I wonder if she would go on tooting her horn about how much she does for orphans all over the world, or toots her and Hugh’s horns about how many millions they donate to orphans?
All the millions they ever could give will never bring back Oscar’s biological mother. Oscar will never see his mother again, and his mother has been permanently deprived of experiencing all the joys of what a mother should experience with her child, courtesy of famous dad Hugh Jackman and his wife, Deborah Lee Furness, who are hypocrites that steal a child away from it’s mother.
The adoption took place in the United States, then shortly after Hugh and Deborah had the child, they fled back to Australia and announced to the mother of Oscar that Oscar would not be coming back. The young mother then killed herself. Is this how so called “humanitarian” Hugh Jackman portrays himself as some super dad who actually loves people? Where is that love in such a selfish act?
Inside information reveals that Hugh Jackman has been cursed for this and an inside source of a friend of a friend of Hugh Jackman’s reveals more details about effects of the curse on Hugh Jackman that is now coming to light and we will see more of that in public, in the days and weeks to come. Recently on Oprah, Hugh suffered an injury to his eye, something that would normally never happen to the action actor.
The family of the young mother that committed suicide when Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness stole her child did not take that act of selfishness very lightly, as Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness are going to see.
What goes around comes around.