While they have one of the strongest relationships in Hollywood, life hasn’t always been easy for Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-lee Furness.
The pair, who recently revealed they never spend more than two weeks apart, have been through a lot during their 16-year marriage.
Before adopting their two children – Oscar, now 12, and seven-year-old daughter Ava – the couple went through a difficult time when Deb experienced multiple miscarriages.
“Until you go through it, you understand it’s not talked about a lot,” Hugh told US talk show host Katie Couric on her show Katie.
“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. It’s almost secretive, so I hope Deb doesn’t mind me bringing it up now,” he said.
“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. So the moment Oscar was born, all the heartache just melted away.”
While the pair wanted to conceive naturally, they also knew they wanted to adopt, and those adoption plans were accelerated when they discovered they could not have children of their own.
“By the way, 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 said.
And while they both shared the heartache of Deb’s two miscarriages, Hugh said nothing was more joyful than becoming a parent.
“Parents know you can’t prepare for that moment. Nothing can prepare you… 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 alive you are as a parent.”
