For nearly three decades, Deborra-Lee Furness built her life around a promise Hugh Jackman made just weeks after they met—that they would grow old together. Now, with rumors swirling that Jackman is preparing to marry Broadway star Sutton Foster, Furness has finally broken her silence, and her words paint a devastating picture of what she calls a “traumatic journey of betrayal.”
The 69-year-old actress, who filed for divorce from Jackman on May 27, 2025, did not hold back in describing the emotional wreckage left behind. In a statement accompanying the legal filing, she described the end of their marriage as “a profound wound that cuts deep.” The language stands in stark contrast to the gentle, unified front the couple presented to the world when they announced their separation in September 2023.
For years, the couple’s love story seemed unbreakable. They met in 1995 on the set of the Australian 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒶 Corelli, where Furness was the established star and Jackman was a fresh-faced 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒶 school graduate. Jackman later admitted he knew within two weeks that Furness was the woman he would spend his life with, proposing just four months after they met.
Their 1996 wedding in a church outside Melbourne launched a partnership that weathered Hollywood’s chaos. As Jackman’s career exploded through X-Men, Broadway, and The Greatest Showman, Furness remained his anchor. In 2021, marking their 25th anniversary, Jackman wrote that being married to her was “as natural as breathing,” ending his tribute with three words that would later haunt their story: “We’ve only just begun.”
The public collapse came with 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 speed. Just four months after they walked the Met Gala together in May 2023, arms wrapped around each other, the couple announced their separation. Their joint statement spoke of “gratitude, love, and kindness,” promising it would be their only public comment.
But Furness’s recent words reveal a far more fractured reality than that polished farewell suggested.
Furness did not name a specific act of betrayal, and her statement alone does not prove infidelity on Jackman’s part. What it does reveal is how she experienced the dissolution of a marriage she believed would last forever. Rather than focusing on anger, she framed her journey as one of rebuilding, speaking about “returning to yourself and living according to your own integrity, values, and boundaries.”
The timing of her statement is significant. The divorce was finalized on June 12, 2025, just two weeks after filing, with uncontested terms. By then, reports had already linked Jackman to Sutton Foster, his co-star in the Broadway revival of The Music Man.
While no wedding has been confirmed, the emotional weight of that possibility is undeniable for a woman who spent 27 years as Jackman’s wife.
Furness’s response has been notably restrained. She has not launched a public war against her ex-husband, nor has she directly addressed the wedding rumors. Instead, she has spoken about healing, boundaries, and finding liberation in reclaiming her own identity.
“Relationships come into our lives so that we can learn lessons, recognize our wounds, and heal parts of ourselves,” she said, ending with an unexpected note of gratitude.
The contrast between her words and the couple’s original separation statement is striking. In 2023, they described their marriage as “wonderful” and their separation as a mutual choice to pursue “individual growth.” Furness’s recent language of betrayal and deep wounds suggests the reality was far more complicated than the carefully crafted public narrative suggested.
For Furness, the stakes of this new chapter are profound. She was already an established actress when she met Jackman, but their lives became so intertwined over nearly three decades that separating her story from his seemed almost impossible. Now, at 69, she faces the challenge of rebuilding a life that was defined for so long by being half of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated couples.
Her final message, however, suggests she has already begun that work. “Although adversity hurts, eventually returning to yourself and living according to your own integrity, values, and boundaries can become a form of liberation and freedom,” she said. The man who once promised her forever has moved forward, but Furness’s words make clear that her future no longer depends on him.
