Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-lee Furness ‘reset’ their marriage – as the actor says they’re ‘always learning from each other’ after 24 years
They are one of Hollywood’s most enduring couples.
And as Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness prepare to celebrate their 24-year anniversary, the X-Men star has revealed the secret to their happy marriage.
Hugh, 51, told PEOPLE on Wednesday that he and his wife, 64, ‘make time for each other’ and are ‘always learning’ from one another.
Longtime couple: As Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness prepare to celebrate their 24-year anniversary, the X-Men star has revealed the secret to their happy marriage
He said they consciously ‘reset’ their marriage from time to time, which means they don’t grow apart like many longtime couples do.
‘We’re always learning and humans change so you have to, even though we’ve been together 25 years, you gotta reset all the time,’ he said.
‘I’m always reeling in how funny she is and how amazing she is and how smart she is. The longer it goes on the better it gets.’
Priorities: Hugh, 51, told PEOPLE on Wednesday that he and his wife, 64, ‘make time for each other’ and are ‘always learning’ from one another
In August 2019, the Broadway star revealed the ‘simple but powerful choice’ he made as a young man that safeguarded his marriage.
He was quoted in the book Father Hood: Inspiration for the New Dad Generation as saying: ‘Before we had kids, Deb and I made a pretty simple but powerful choice to look each other in the eye at every crossroads in life.
‘Those crossroads are sometimes big, sometimes they’re small, sometimes you don’t even realise they’re crossroads until you look back.
Work in progress: Hugh explained that he and Deborra-lee consciously ‘reset’ their marriage from time to time, which means they don’t grow apart like many longtime couples do
‘But at those moments, we said we’d ask each other, “Is this good or bad for our marriage?” Or, now that we’ve got kids, “Is this good or bad for our family?”
‘And as often as possible, we do the thing that is good for our family.’
Earlier that year, Hugh revealed that ‘intimacy’ was the key to a happy marriage.
‘Without a doubt, it is the most important thing,’ he said.
‘People talk about intimacy and assume that means in the bedroom. Of course it is that, but really, intimacy is being able to share everything together – good, bad, fears, successes.
‘Deb and I had that from the beginning. We’ve always been completely ourselves with each other.’
The New York-based couple met on the set of Australian TV drama Correlli in 1995, when Hugh was fresh out of acting school.
Although the show only lasted for one season, Hugh has said that being introduced to Deborra-lee was the ‘greatest thing to come out of it’.
The couple married in Melbourne in April 1996 and, after struggling with infertility, adopted their children, Oscar and Ava, in the early 2000s.