Actor Hugh Jackman, 54, has always recognized himself as a person who has difficulty making decisions.
When he met fellow Australian actress Deborra-Lee Furness, though, he knew without a doubt that she was the one.
It wasn’t until 1995, on the set of the Australian TV show ’Corelli,’ that the two people first worked together.
Furness now says she was not looking for a committed partner at the time. Having just finished her New Year’s Eve preparations,
she promised to never date an actor or anyone under the age of 30 again.
However, Jackman always knew she was the one for him. The two started dating after some time, but they had problems almost immediately.
It was early in their relationship, according to Jackman, that Furness considered breaking up with him, but he was able to convince her otherwise. For a total of 11 months, they went on dates before being married in April of 1996.
The thought of becoming parents through adoption was very important to Jackman and his wife, even though they always planned to have biological children first.
Since Jackman was just 27 and Furness was 40 when they got married, the pair decided to start trying for children as soon as they could get settled in.
Unfortunately, progress was not happening as rapidly as hoped. The Australian couple struggled through a lot for a long time before deciding to adopt their kids.
Jackman stated that he and his wife always knew they would become adoptive parents someday, but they had no idea how or when the process would begin.
However, after years of trying to conceive naturally without success, they decided to adopt instead and started the process.
In the beginning, the couple adopted their son Oscar Maximillian through an open adoption, which meant that they were familiar with the child’s birth family and kept in touch with them.
Everything got better after Oscar was born. No amount of preparation can make you ready for that instant. Nothing will prepare you.
He was at a loss for words to describe the flood of emotions that came with the birth of his first child,
but he did note that the experience had stripped him of all his frustrations and rage and replaced them with a sense of being fully alive.
When Jackman and his wife adopted Oscar in 2000, he supposedly promised that he would keep Oscar’s birth mother, Amber Sanders, updated on their son’s life.
But in 2004, Sanders said she had not acquired a picture of Oscar and that she had no way of contacting Jackman and Furness, and Jackman received criticism in the media.
She felt cheated because the only pictures she ever saw of her son were of him with his new family in glossy magazines.
Furness gushed that her son, a recent high school graduate and budding artist, looks up to the famous Salvador Dal. Jackman, too, is quite pleased with his offspring, and he and his son share a unique bond.
A daughter named Ava Elliot was adopted by Jackman and the actress from “Angel Baby” years after the birth of their first child.
The joy that Ava brought to her adoptive parents was unimaginable, just as it had been for their first child, Ava’s older brother.
The weight of the love you feel for your children is tremendous. The love you feel for your partner is different from this.
You have no idea that you have that kind of power; you would sacrifice anything for them.
Despite the fact that they have a lot going on, Jackman and Furness are committed to being involved parents to their children.
As his children entered their teenage years, the actor remarked, the dynamic of his relationship with them changed dramatically.
To put it another way, ‘instead of stating, ‘Hey, here are the rules, we don’t do that,’ we now have to show them reasons why.’
Jackman teaches his kids to use their privilege to help people who are less fortunate since he knows they have it easy.
He says he tries to show Oscar and Ava the right way to act and provide an example for them to follow when it comes to fulfilling their responsibilities to others.