Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness — who announced their separation on Sept. 15, 2023 — are the proud parents of two adopted children.
The couple met in 1995 and wed a year later. However, they struggled to get pregnant and eventually decided to explore other options.
They adopted their son, Oscar, in 2000 and their daughter, Ava, five years later.
Despite ending their 27-year marriage, the notoriously private pair noted that “family has been and always will be [their] highest priority” in a statement shared with People.
“We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” the former couple wrote.
“Our journey now is shifting, and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”
While the pair chose to raise their kids out of the public eye, here is everything we know about their now-adult children.
Oscar Maximilian Jackman
The pair decided to adopt Oscar as a newborn after Furness suffered multiple miscarriages.
“It was not easy. It was difficult, obviously particularly on Deb,” the “Wolverine” star told People in 2017. “I remember saying to her, ‘We were always going to adopt — let’s just adopt now.’ “
While going through the adoption process, Hugh and Furness realized that bi-racial children had a harder time finding homes.
“Our motivation behind adopting was, ‘Where is the need?’” he explained. “And we just knew from talking with people in that space, when we were looking around, that the biggest need is in mixed-race kids.
“A lot of people go into [adoption thinking] it’s really important to them for the kid to look like them, and honestly, for Deb and I, that just never even was an issue.”
Although the father-son duo grew close over the years, Hugh revealed Oscar was never very impressed by his superstar status.
While promoting his movie “Missing link” in 2019, Hugh joked that his kids rarely find him “cool.”
“I love this project because my son, a fan, loves the stop-motion thing with the real puppets. He thinks my doing this now means I’m really cool. And — since my kids are teenagers — this is not easy to achieve.”
Oscar has reportedly been living in New York City since graduating from high school in 2019, yet it’s unclear if he chose to follow in his famous father’s footsteps and pursue a career in acting.
Ava Eliot Jackman
Five years after the former couple welcomed Oscar into their lives, they adopted daughter Ava, who was also a newborn at the time.
“You’re a little more relaxed,” Hugh told People of becoming a father of two. “And it’s a different dynamic having a girl, but both are wonderful and I’m so blessed to have a beautiful boy and girl.”
“I hold her and think, ‘I don’t want you to face anything bad ever in your life.'”
Despite living life out of the spotlight, Ava and her brother made headlines in 2016 after their father rescued them from drowning at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Thankfully, both children made it out safely.
As Ava got older, her parents made it a point to help her connect with her Mexican heritage.
“We completely embrace the ancestors and the extended family; they’re family to us,” Furness told People in 2020. “And it’s in there, even though it’s generational. It may be subtle, but it’s in there.”
Like her father, Ava has a passion for the arts, specifically dance.
However, Hugh said he was banned from attending his daughter’s dance classes following the success of “The Greatest Showman.”
“My daughter does dance and I go watch her,” Hugh told Closer magazine, per the Daily Mail. “After ‘The Greatest Showman,’ I had 60 young girls in their tutus coming up to me and my daughter says, ‘you are not coming to dance again!'”
While it’s unclear exactly where Ava calls “home” currently, she lived in New York City alongside her brother and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Neither her nor her brother are on social media.
