Hugh Jackman recently admitted he was abandoned by his mother at the age of 8, and in another emotionally raw interview, the 44-year-old actor reveals his own struggles with parenthood.
Jackman shares how his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, now 57, struggled through IVF and endured multiple miscarriages while trying to have their own biological children.
“To be clear, Deb and I always wanted to adopt. So that was always in our plan. We didn’t know where in the process that would happen but biologically obviously we tried and it was not happening for us and it is a difficult time,” he tells Katie Couric on her daytime talk show. “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.”
He continues: “It’s almost secretive, so I hope Deb doesn’t mind me bringing it up now. 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.”
The “Les Miserables” actor says “all the heartache just melted away” when their son Oscar was born.
“Many of you are parents, you guys know you can’t prepare for that moment. Nothing can prepare you,” says Jackman. “You can’t even explain how incredible it is and that avalanche of emotion that comes and how it opens up your heart, how it frustrates you, how it angers you, how everything is just all the sudden how alive you are as a parent.”
Hugh and Deborra-Lee married in 1996 after meeting on set of an Australian TV series. They have adopted two children, son Oscar, 12, and daughter Ava, 7.