Hugh Jackman’s 2 Kids: All About Oscar and Ava

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness share two children.

The couple met in 1995 on the set of the Australian series Correlli and tied the knot on April 11, 1996. They adopted their son, Oscar, 24, in 2000, and their daughter, Ava, 19, in 2005.

After nearly three decades of marriage, however, Jackman and Furness separated. They announced their split in September 2023, telling PEOPLE in an exclusive statement that their “family has been and always will be our highest priority.”

“We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” they said. “Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”

Furness officially filed for divorce from Jackman in May 2025.

During their time together, The Greatest Showman star and Furness did what they could to teach their children to count their blessings. “My kids have so many advantages,” Jackman told PEOPLE in 2018. “And I want them to know that they have a responsibility to use those advantages to help others.”

He added, “My kids are constantly reminded about how lucky we are in our family. We’re ridiculously blessed. We live in a beautiful home in places that other people dream of.”

In addition to keeping them humble, Jackman and Furness also raised their children out of the public eye. The private parents rarely share pictures of their son and daughter, nor do they bring them along to many public events. However, they are not shy when it comes to expressing how much their family means to them.

“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 said of her children during an interview with PEOPLE in 2020. “But when you’re a parent, you can’t lie to them or yourself. They will shine a light on every one of your flaws, your Achilles heel, whatever. You’ve got to look at yourself.”

Here’s everything to know about Hugh Jackman’s kids.

Oscar Maximilian Jackman, 24

Jackman and Furness became parents in 2000 when they adopted their son, Oscar, who was born in May 2000.

Though Jackman said they “were always going to adopt,” adoption became their clear path to parenthood after experiencing miscarriages and IVF (in vitro fertilization). “It was not easy. It was difficult, obviously particularly on Deb,” the father of two told PEOPLE in 2017. “I remember saying to her, ‘We were always going to adopt — let’s just adopt now.’ “

“Our motivation behind adopting was, ‘Where is the need?’ ” he continued. “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.”

As Oscar was growing up, his parents made a constant effort to honor his heritage. “When my son was younger, he found out he was part Bosnian, so we went and got this Croatian/Bosnian cookbook and he was very proud to carry that around when he was 7 years old,” Furness told PEOPLE in 2020.

Jackman was also very aware of the pressures his son faced growing up with a famous dad. “There is a normalcy that I was used to [growing up] that they’re not,” the actor shared in 2006. “To be Wolverine‘s son can be a huge burden. My dad was an accountant and I thought it was cool, but no one cared.”

As their kids have continued to grow up, Jackman and Furness have had to adjust their parenting style accordingly. The actor told PEOPLE in 2019 as Oscar was getting ready to finish up high school, “It’s amazing to just have conversations with them. But it took a bit of readjusting. It went from ‘Hey, guys, these are the rules, we don’t do that,’ to having to give them reasons why.”

“When your focus is innately, deeply, one hundred percent become these kids in your life and their well being it just seems to put everything into perspective,” Jackman continued. “Being a father has taught me so much.”

Ava Eliot Jackman, 19

Jackman and Furness’ family grew again in 2005 when they welcomed a baby girl, Ava Eliot, who was born on July 10, 2005. Shortly after the couple brought Ava home, the Les Misérables star spoke about being a father of two.

“You’re a little more relaxed,” Jackman said. “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.”

He added of Ava, “I hold her and think, ‘I don’t want you to face anything bad ever in your life.’ “

Despite Jackman being a common face on the big screen, the actor and Furness were careful to monitor Ava and her brother’s screen time when they were younger. “A buddy of mine has a rule that I installed: No screens during the week. No TV, or computer, or anything like that,” The Music Man star told PEOPLE in 2011.

“Kids nowadays have very little time,” Jackman added. “They seem to be at school longer than ever. They have all sorts of after school activities. By the time you have eaten and showered and dressed, it is over. So there is not much time for it anyway.”

In an exclusive 2020 interview with PEOPLE, Furness shared that she and Jackman have put an emphasis on both of their kids knowing about their cultural backgrounds. “My daughter has a Mexican lineage, so we’ve been to Mexico,” she said.

“What I’m very interested in is epigenetics, and it’s even more so when you have adopted children because I’m coming from my lineage of my mother, how she parented me, how her mother parented her, and I’m translating that to my children,” she added. “But my children also have a separate lineage. So it’s almost like we have more players at the table.”

Furness continued, “We completely embrace the ancestors and the extended family; they’re family to us. And it’s in there, even though it’s generational. It may be subtle, but it’s in there.”

Source People.com