A difficult childhood, an absentee parent, and multiple bouts of cancer. Hugh Jackman may play a fearless superhero in the movies, but when the cameras are off, he's endured plenty of pain and heartache.
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00:00A difficult childhood, an absentee parent, and multiple bouts of cancer, Hugh Jackman
00:05may play a fearless superhero in the movies, but when the cameras are off, he's endured
00:09plenty of pain and heartache.
00:10When Hugh Jackman was growing up, he had to endure one of the most difficult things that
00:14can ever happen to a child when his mother left him. After leaving young Hugh, his dad,
00:18and his brothers, she returned to her native U.K. with her daughters. In 2012, Jackman
00:23spoke to Australian Women's Weekly about how his mother abandoned the family when he was
00:26very young and how it affected him. He told the outlet,
00:29One of the main things I remember is that horrible feeling that people were talking
00:32about you and looking at you because it was odd for the mother to leave. He was just eight
00:36years old and living in Sydney at the time, and it took him years to come to terms with
00:40the fact that his mother was really gone.
00:42Jackman said he has since come to understand why she left. He told Australian Women's Weekly,
00:46She was in hospital after I was born, suffering from postnatal depression. There wasn't a
00:50support network for her in Australia.
00:52In the decades since, the two have remained close, with Jackman and his mother often appearing
00:56together at red carpet events. He told the outlet,
00:58There comes a certain point in life when you have to stop blaming other people for how
01:01you feel or the misfortunes in your life.
01:04When Jackman's mother picked up and left his family, he said he struggled to accept his
01:08mother's absence, with the possibility of a family reunion always giving him hope. That
01:12hope, however, was dashed a few years later, and that's when the young Jackman began to
01:16experience emotional issues. According to Jackman, his explosive temper surfaced when
01:20he was around 12 or 13, after his parents had briefly considered a reconciliation. He
01:24told Parade in 2015,
01:26All those years I'd been holding out hope that they would get back together.
01:29But when his parents ultimately decided to remain apart, Jackman fell to pieces. He said,
01:34There was this perfect storm of hormones and emotion.
01:37The actor said that during this time, he'd often take out his rage on the school rugby
01:40field. Other times, he was even known to bash his head into his school's metal lockers.
01:44Thankfully, he has since found ways of overcoming his anger issues, with help from family, friends,
01:49and professionals.
01:50With all the pain and trauma he felt during his childhood, Jackman brought with him more
01:54than just a bad temper into adulthood. He was also left with lingering emotional problems
01:58that followed him through his life. As a result, Jackman eventually came to realize he needed
02:02help dealing with them. The actor told Who magazine,
02:04It helped me a lot. We all need a village.
02:07Mental health is something we need to be talking about. It touches everybody.
02:12He added that therapy helped him finally close the door on his mother's absence from his
02:16childhood. But it's also helped him in the present, with his own family and friends.
02:20He told the outlet,
02:21Most importantly, it's helping me to be more relational with the people I love in my life,
02:24and really understanding and living in their shoes, and being clear to be able to see them.
02:29Jackman made the acknowledgment during the press tour for his movie The Sun, and according
02:32to The Hollywood Reporter, the film also had psychiatrists on set to help the cast deal
02:36with the film's difficult subject matter.
02:39Jackman wasn't the first actor considered for Wolverine in 2000's X-Men. In fact, he
02:43was brought on at the 11th hour when original actor Dugrae Scott dropped out to appear in
02:47Mission Impossible 2. Jackman's breakout performance made him an in-demand Hollywood
02:51heavyweight practically overnight. But as much as it was good fortune and circumstance,
02:56Jackman's casting as Wolverine also saved him from deportation.
02:59The year was 1999, and Jackman was coming from his audition in Toronto, when he was
03:03confronted by officials about the status of his visa. From there, the customs officer
03:07told him that he couldn't stay in the country because he didn't have active employment.
03:11In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Jackman revealed just how serious his situation was,
03:14saying,
03:15He literally is like, get off the phone! Now!
03:18Really?
03:19This is serious! You have no rights in here! You have no phone calls!
03:23The officer also told Jackman that he was probably going to be sent back to Australia
03:27on a plane. Thankfully, however, the officer was a comic book fan. So when Jackman told
03:31him he'd just signed on to play Wolverine, he was given a pass, in exchange for a few
03:35autographs from the future Marvel hero.
03:37He was a mad X-Men fan.
03:41If getting the gig playing Wolverine in the first X-Men movie wasn't enough of a challenge
03:44for Jackman, keeping the job proved just as difficult. For starters, Jackman admitted
03:48that he somewhat overpromised when asked if he could be ripped like a superhero by the
03:52time cameras rolled, and he showed up on set not nearly there. As a result, the film had
03:56to push back filming his shirtless sequences to give him more time to bulk up.
04:00But that wasn't the worst of it. He told We Got This Covered in 2019,
04:03I was told that things weren't really working out as they hoped. I was about to get fired
04:08from my first Hollywood movie, the biggest of my career.
04:11Distressed and angry, Jackman was at a crossroads. But thankfully, he found support from his
04:15then-wife, Deborah Leigh Furness, whom he turned to for advice.
04:18This guy's grown claws, and it's like he's a mutant, and I'm like, seriously? What did
04:24I know?
04:25With his wife's counsel, Jackman learned to trust his instincts and stop being concerned
04:28about what might happen with his job. He said of his wife's support,
04:31To me, that was love. Someone that believes in you when you don't fully believe in yourself.
04:36Playing Wolverine wasn't just about delivering a strong performance as the wild-haired, rage-fueled
04:40mutant. It was also about looking and sounding the part.
04:43For the looks part, Jackman had to repeatedly work out to get into superhero shape for every
04:48movie. But his work didn't stop there. He also had to perform Logan's deep, gravelly
04:52voice, which was a far cry from the actor's ordinary vocals. He told BBC Radio 4's Front
04:57Row in 2023,
04:58I've done some damage to my voice with Wolverine. My falsetto is not as strong as it used to
05:02be, and that I directly put down to some of the growling and yelling.
05:05Though he's certainly proud of his performance, his drama school voice teacher probably wouldn't
05:09be so happy. All that damage couldn't have helped Jackman in 2015 when he suffered a
05:14vocal hemorrhage, forcing him to cancel a series of stage performances.
05:18Jackman has struggled with skin cancer throughout his life. Specifically, Jackman had basal
05:22cell carcinoma in 2013 and had a scare of it coming back in 2023, but the test results
05:27came back negative. While this cancer is often caused by cumulative sun exposure, it's rarely
05:31fatal. However, it can be harmful when it occurs on a sensitive part of the body.
05:36Since his first diagnosis in 2013, Jackman has had at least six treatment procedures.
05:40The actor also uses his platform to encourage people to protect their skin. He said on Instagram,
05:45Please wear sunscreen. It's just not worth it. No matter how much you want to tan, trust
05:50me, trust me, trust me.
05:52It may seem hard to believe, but when Jackman first met his wife, Debra Lee, their dynamic
05:56was quite different than you'd imagine. The year was 1995, and the future X-Men star was
06:01a fresh-faced newcomer tag team, while she was an established Australian star who'd already
06:05appeared in a number of TV and movie projects. Meeting on the set of the Australian TV series
06:09Corelli, the pair married a year later. But when it came to starting a family, they had
06:13trouble. Jackman said on The Jess Cagle Interview in 2017,
06:17We struggled, a couple miscarriages, IVF. It's not easy, particularly on Deb."
06:22In the end, the couple chose to go a different route to grow their family, opting to adopt.
06:26The two are now parents to Oscar and Ava, who are both today well into adulthood. Jackman
06:31said,
06:32The motivation behind adopting was, where is the need? I want to tell my kids that,
06:36it doesn't matter what sexual orientation you are. It doesn't matter whether your hair
06:39is straight or curly. If you're tall or short, man or woman, what race you are. What defines
06:44you as a human being is underneath all that.
06:47In Hollywood, there aren't many high-profile couples whose marriages have truly stood the
06:50test of time, as the life of a star is a complicated one. For decades, though, Hugh Jackman and
06:55Debra Lee Furness were among those few. Meeting when Jackman was working his very first role
07:00at a drama school, they remained together through his meteoric rise to superstardom.
07:04They built a family together and could have been considered one of the last bastions of
07:07true Hollywood love. Sadly, it didn't last forever.
07:10Despite their many years of matrimony, Jackman and his wife announced their separation in
07:142023. The pair said in a statement,
07:16We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a
07:19wonderful loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting, and we have decided to separate
07:23to pursue our individual growth.
07:25As one might imagine, the split wasn't an easy one, and a source close to the couple
07:29revealed that both Jackman and Furness were devastated by the separation. Nevertheless,
07:33both have expressed a desire to remain not just on good terms, but remain a family, even
07:37if they aren't married. They stated,
07:39Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter
07:43with gratitude, love, and kindness.
07:46While growing up in Australia, Jackman was raised by his father, and later his stepmother.
07:50Jackman maintained a close relationship with his parents as he got older, and he invited
07:54his father to sets frequently. Christopher Jackman would usually sit quietly to the side,
07:59working on crossword puzzles.
08:00My dad has seen everything I've ever done.
08:02But in 2021, Jackman was dealt a crushing blow while filming the drama The Son when
08:06his father passed away. Christopher Jackman had been the rock of the Klan for years, and
08:10you took it hard. It was a heartbreaking time for the actor, who thankfully had a supportive
08:14crew in the aid of on-set mental health professionals, as well as his family and friends.
08:19As fate would have it, his father's passing came on Father's Day, and Jackman posted a
08:23poignant farewell on Instagram. He wrote in the caption,
08:26My dad was, in a word, extraordinary. He devoted his life to his family, his work,
08:30and his faith. I pray he is now at peace with God.
08:34The death of Jackman's father isn't the only recent tragedy that the actor has endured.
08:38In April 2024, a good friend and colleague also died, deeply affecting the star. That
08:42colleague was Ray Chan, a visual artist who worked for Marvel Studios and who served as
08:47art director on a variety of Hollywood classics, including Children of Men and Blood Diamond,
08:51among many others.
08:52Chan worked as a production designer on the actor's last Marvel effort, Deadpool and Wolverine.
08:56But just a few months before the film was released, Chan died at the age of 56. His
09:01Marvel friends, including Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, were the first to speak about the
09:05enormity of the loss.
09:07Jackman also took time to remember Chan in his Instagram story, saying,
09:10I am devastated to hear the tragic news about Ray Chan. There was not a day's shooting when
09:14I didn't marvel at what he created. He created magic. There was this look in his eyes, the
09:19look of a man who loved his craft.
09:22He loved his craft.
09:23He loved his craft.
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