Deborra-Lee Furness' Transformation Has Heads Turning

For nearly 30 years, Deborra-Lee Furness has been known to the public as the spouse of movie star Hugh Jackman. Jackman, as his legions of fans are aware, has enjoyed a wildly successful Hollywood career, among the rare stars who can wow audiences in Broadway musicals while also enjoying a lengthy stint as Wolverine (a role, by the way, he's played in 10 different movies over the course of more than two decades).

Throughout it all, Furness has been by his side, joining him on red carpets and setting aside her own acting work in order to focus on the couple's two children while his career exploded. In fact, Furness is a successful actor in her own right, an established star in their home country Australia for far longer than Jackman.

Once among Hollywood's strongest and steadiest couples, their relationship has undergone a huge change in recent years, accompanied by rumors of infidelity that have seemingly grown more prevalent as time has passed. Furness, however, has continued to hold her head high as she's stepped out to re-establish her identity as a solo act, a future that remains unwritten. To find out how she got there, read on to discover why Deborra-Lee Furness' transformation has heads turning.

Raised in Melbourne, Australia, Deborra-Lee Furness was raised by a single mother who taught her to believe that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to. While Furness had aspirations to become an actor, her mother insisted that she learn secretarial skills so she'd have something to fall back on if acting didn't pan out. So, after a year spent attending secretarial school, she landed a job as assistant to John Sorell, news director at Australia's Channel 9 television network.

She wasn't great at it. "I was such a bog secretary!" Furness told The New Daily. "I mean, I was terrible — but he liked me, so there you go." That led Sorell to promote her to researcher, which eventually led to on-air reporting on an all-female news show called "No Man's Land." "It was a newsroom, so it was really exciting," she recalled. "It was high energy ... I'm a little ADD, I like it fast! I thrive on stress."

As successful as she was becoming in journalism, acting was her true passion. She decided to leave Australia and study acting in New York, where she wound up attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. "I studied there for three years and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," Furness said. After finishing school in 1981, she returned to Australia and began getting acting work, including roles in such Australian TV series as "The Flying Doctors" and hit soap opera "Neighbours." Further success was just around the corner.

In 1987, Deborra-Lee Furness landed her biggest break to date when she was cast in "Falcon Crest," a big-time American primetime soap. Sure, the role – as Kathleen Gioberti — was only a one-episode guest spot, but it was her first role in a series outside of Australia.

As her acting résumé grew and her career heated up, she became seriously injured in a car accident. With broken bones and numerous lacerations, doctor were fearful that they might have to amputate her foot. Furness believed that her acting career was over. "I thought, that's it, because my face was all cut open," she recalled while reminiscing about her journey when she was the guest of honor on Australian TV's "This Is Your Life."

While Furness pondered what she'd do with her life now that acting was seemingly no longer an option, she was thrown a lifeline by a casting agent in Sydney, who sent her the script for an Australian movie. According to Furness, her savior believed that Furness was perfect for the leading role. "And she really pushed for me ... and I read the script, and I loved it — and I got the part," Furness recalled.

Thanks to that inspired casting, Deborra-Lee Furness landed the starring role in "Shame." In the 1988 film, she played Asta Cadell, a high-powered attorney who rides her motorcycle in a small Outback town. While awaiting repairs on her motorcycle, she decides to stick around and help out a group of young women who are being terrorized by a vicious gang of local boys. When she discovers one of the women had been sexually assaulted, she uses her particular set of skills to become their avenging angel.

Hailed as a masterpiece in Australia, "Shame" also racked up rave reviews in the U.S. "Blunt and angry, 'Shame' (appropriately rated R) has the mesmerizing effect of a stick of dynamite set off by a slow fuse," noted film critic Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times, describing Furness' screen presence as "vibrant." The role brought her stardom, both in Australia and in the U.S., where she was lauded as a "new face" by The New York Times.

Decades later, when the film was restored and re-released to mark its 30th anniversary, Furness ruminated on what came to be her defining role. "It's still my favorite role I've ever played," she told The Sydney Morning Herald. "I just put on those leathers and I was a cowboy. We didn't get that many opportunities to play those really strong, powerful roles."

After "Shame" put Deborra-Lee Furness on the map, her acting career continued to blossom. She starred in Australian TV movies and appeared in some big Hollywood productions (including the Meryl Streep-starring, "A Cry in the Dark," and the musical, "Newsies"). That all led to a starring role as a prison psychologist in "Corelli," a 1995 miniseries for Australian television. Starring alongside her was up-and-coming young actor Hugh Jackman, in his first major screen role. "My first job out of drama school — it was a massive break for me. I was really scared," Jackman recalled in an interview with People. "Deb, she was a big star."

Jackman was instantly smitten, despite the fact that Furness was 13 years older than him (but we know age-gap relationships aren't uncommon in Hollywood). While working together, they became fast friends and grew closer throughout filming. Jackman couldn't ignore his attraction, but, as a fledgling actor who'd just been handed his big break, he was fearful of messing it up. "Deb and I were already best friends, and I realized, 'I've got a crush on my leading lady. This is the thing you do not do. It's unprofessional and embarrassing,'" he said.

Yet Jackman's feelings for Furness only grew, and he finally decided he needed to let her know. He invited her and several others to his home for a dinner party, where he asked if she could join him in the kitchen to give him a hand with dessert. "I said, '[I've] got a crush on you. I'll get over it; I'm sorry,'" he said. "She goes, 'Oh? Because I've got a crush on you too.' I never in a million years thought she reciprocated."

Deborra-Lee Furness was almost 40 years old when she first started dating co-star Hugh Jackman, who was 13 years her junior, and she wasn't seeking a serious relationship at that point in her life. "I had just made my New Year's resolution, I said, 'I am not dating any actors, and definitely not under 30,'" Furness recalled while appearing on the "Aussies in Hollywood with Jenny Cooney" podcast.

That declaration, in fact, led her to attempt to quash their blooming romance by nipping it in the bud. "She kind of [broke up with me], a little bit," Jackman explained in that same podcast. "Early on, three weeks in. I managed to talk her out of it, thank God." As Jackman explained, he outright refused to be broken up with. According to the actor, even he was surprised by the level of his conviction he had that Furness was the woman with whom he'd spend the rest of his life. "I just knew 100%, I even knew when she was trying to work out reasons to break up with me," he added.

It didn't take long for the "Corelli" co-stars to take their relationship to the next level by making it official. In 1996, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness tied the knot, exchanging vows in Melbourne, Australia on April 11, 1996. Furness, ever the rebel, eschewed the traditional bridal gown and instead wore white satin pants, accentuated by a veil and long train. 

Furness and Jackman also decided to engrave the same non-English phrase on their respective rings. "On our wedding bands, we have Sanskrit," Furness explained during a 2004 appearance on the Australian TV talk show "Enough Rope with Andrew Denton." The words engraved, she said, were "Om paramar mainamar," which translates to: "We dedicate our union to a greater source."

According to Furness, Jackman picked our her ring, although she remembered the whole thing became an ordeal due to the groom's inexperience with jewelry. "Well, he was very nervous because he didn't have a clue about jewelry or diamonds ... he said, 'I don't know what I'm doing so I'll just tell you a bit about Deb,' and this poor jeweler he sat there for an hour and a half and bored him endlessly giving every nuance of my personality, but in the end the guy said yeah okay, here's the ring, here's the diamond," she recalled.

After getting married, Deborra-Lee Furness and Hugh Jackman were eager to start a family. Their journey to parenthood, however, was a difficult one. "We struggled, a couple miscarriages, IVF — it's not easy, particularly on Deb," Jackman told People. He shared more details about their difficulties when appearing on the Australian talk show, "Katie" (via Today), in 2012. "Obviously we tried, and it was not happening for us, and it is a difficult time," he said. "I'll never forget it, the miscarriage thing ... 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."

When their attempts to have a child weren't working, the couple instead decided to adopt. "Our motivation behind adopting was, 'Where is the need?'" Jackman told People, revealing that they then discovered that children of mixed race were the most in need of adoption. That led them to adopt their son, Oscar, in 2000. They expanded their family in 2005 when they adopted a daughter, Ava.

Becoming an adoptive mother propelled Furness in a whole new direction, and she became a vocal adoption advocate. In 2008, she established National Adoption Awareness Week in Australia, and a few years later was honored for her work by winning the New South Wales Australian of the Year award. "It's so interesting being a parent, and they've both made me smarter than I think I ever could have been on my own," Furness told People of what she'd learned from being a mom.

For Deborra-Lee Furness, motherhood not only changed her perspective but also shifted her focus from career to family. After becoming a mom, her acting credits grew sparse (in comparison to her earlier career) in the years after 2000, as her priority became raising her two kids. As they grew older, however, she decided it was time to dip her toe back into the acting pool.

This comeback led to a 2016 report that she had signed on for her first acting role in years, in a new miniseries for Australian TV titled "Hyde and Seek." Furness portrayed Claudia Rossini, a director of counter-terrorism for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. "I had not worked as an actor for about five years. I was in New York, I had the kids, I was just doing other things," she said of her years away from the spotlight when interviewed by Stuff.

When she unexpectedly received the offer for "Hyde and Seek," she felt that she should give it a go, admitting it was "nerve-racking" to be back in front of the camera after so many years off. "It was good to jump back on the horse again but a little terrifying," she admitted. "It was like, 'Is it just like riding a bike?' and it was just like riding a bike."

As the years passed and Hugh Jackman's stardom skyrocketed in Hollywood, the two actors continued to project the image of a rock-solid Hollywood power couple. That was evident when they celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2016, with Jackman commemorating the moment by sharing a throwback photo from their wedding on Instagram.

"It gets better and better, I can honestly say that," he gushed while appearing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2016 as that anniversary approached. "Obviously, she's the greatest thing that ever happened to me." The "Greatest Showman" actor expressed he was "grateful" for meeting Deborra-Lee Furness before his career took off, saying, "On screen, off screen, we've always done it together."

Five years later, they toasted to a quarter-century of marriage, and Jackman once again marked the occasion with an Instagram post. "Being married to you Deb is as natural as breathing. From nearly the moment we met ... I knew our destiny was to be together," he wrote in the caption for the 2021 post. "In our 25 years — our love has only grown deeper."

Given the length of time they had been together, and the seeming solidity of their marriage, Deborra-Lee Furness and husband Hugh Jackman shocked the world with a joint statement they issued in September 2023. "We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth," read the statement issued to People.

Noting that their family has been and remained their No. 1 priority, the brief statement offered few details, particularly about the reasons behind their split. There were, however, the usual showbiz platitudes. "We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness," the message continued, concluding with the request — typical in such statements — that the media respect their privacy during this difficult time, while also noting neither of them would be making any further comment about it.

As the shock of their divorce announcement wore off and the dust settled, Deborra-Lee Furness decided the time was right to once again return to acting. Taking on her first role since "Hyde and Seek" in 2016, she signed on to star in the 2024 feature film, "Force of Nature: The Dry 2." Acting alongside Eric Bana, Furness played one of several women on a hiking retreat in the wilderness who encounter some harrowing unforeseen circumstances. As Furness told People, she was attracted to being part of a female acting ensemble. "I love playing women that are great role models for younger girls," she explained. "Women are great leaders or women can do this. So, I like to play women who've got something to say." 

Meanwhile, she also hinted that this latest comeback wasn't a one-shot deal. "I've got a few [projects] up my sleeve," she said in an interview with Yahoo! Lifestyle, revealing that she was working on a script that she was hoping to both direct and act in. "And who knows there might be a reprisal from the character I play [in 'Force of Nature']," she added. "Hey, maybe another sequel from a character I played many years ago in 'Shame.'"

She also addressed her new status of being estranged from husband Hugh Jackman, albeit obliquely. "[I learned] that I'm strong and resilient," she told People. "And that I — we are all a constant evolution."

In 2022, Hugh Jackman starred in a Broadway revival of "The Music Man" alongside two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster for an 11-month run. In the months after he and Deborra-Lee Furness announced they'd separated in 2023, rumors began swirling that Foster was the reason behind the split. Those rumors heated up when social media gossip maven Tasha Lustig issued a post in October 2024 claiming that Jackman had "blindsided his wife and he was running off with the mistress," alleging that Jackman and Sutton were preparing to "soft launch" their relationship publicly.

Lustig's claim caused the gossip floodgates to burst open, especially when Sutton announced she was divorcing her husband of 10 years in October 2024. "Sutton and Hugh's relationship is the reason Hugh and Deb got divorced," a source claimed to Us Weekly. "Deborra-Lee had her suspicions when Hugh started working with Sutton. Their relationship is not a secret to her," another source told the Daily Mail. 

Further confirmation came from a friend, who issued a comment in response to Lustig's Instagram post. "You are on point with this one," British actor and photographer Amanda de Cadenet wrote. "My beloved friend Deb is about to have her glow up any moment FYI!" Meanwhile, conclusions could certainly be drawn when Furness herself gave Lustig's post a "like." Details of the Jackman-Furness divorce have yet to make their way into the public domain, but, given the alleged circumstances, it's likely that their uncoupling could join the list of the most expensive divorces in Hollywood history.