In September 2023, Hugh Jackman and Deborra Lee Furness announced their separation after 27 years of marriage. While rumors swirled instantly, it also felt like a big mystery of why now and what has really changed. Then, just a few months later, we began hearing a lot about Hugh and Sutton Foster. Sutton and Hugh had worked together and they were good friends. But it looked like Hugh and Sutton’s relationship had become more than that, and they were possibly carrying on with each other while they were both married to other people. Last October, Sutton filed for divorce too. Things started to feel inevitable, and here we go – People Magazine has published exclusive photos of Hugh and Sutton looking very coupled-up.
Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster are stepping out together. The former Music Man costars enjoyed a low-key, laughter-filled night out for dinner in Santa Monica, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 6. Arriving together and holding hands, Jackman, 56, kept it casual in a dark jacket over a grey shirt and white jeans, while Foster, 49, fresh off an acclaimed Broadway revival and L.A. run of Once Upon a Mattress, wore a tan trench coat over an olive dress.
Jackman, who issued a joint statement with ex-wife Deborra-lee Furness in September 2023 announcing their split after 27 years of marriage, was relaxed and upbeat as he and Foster enjoyed their night out. The Tony Award-winning actress and singer filed for divorce in October from husband Ted Griffin following 10 years of marriage.
Jackman and Foster’s reps did not have immediate comment on the outing.
On Saturday, Jan. 4, Jackman attended one of the final performances of Foster’s Once Upon a Mattress at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre. He was joined in the audience by Carol Burnett — who played Foster’s role in the original 1959 production.
Yeah, this was an affair. Maybe it started out as an emotional affair and maybe they fought their feelings for each other for a while, but they still blew up their marriages for each other. It’s interesting that Hugh hasn’t gotten more sh-t for it too, but that’s possibly down to his general popularity? It’s also a big choice to do this kind of relationship-confirmation via a People Magazine exclusive, with photos.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.
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- Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman attend The 88th Annual Drama League Awards Luncheon on May 20, 2022 at The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 693129913, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
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- Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman attend The 88th Annual Drama League Awards Luncheon on May 20, 2022 at The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 693129917, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
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- Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman attends The 88th Annual Drama League Awards Luncheon on May 20, 2022 at The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 693129960, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
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- Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster attend the 75th Annual Tony Awards on June 12, 2022 at Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 699184976, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
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- Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster attend the 75th Annual Tony Awards on June 12, 2022 at Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 699184981, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
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- Premiere du film The Son en presence de Hugh Jackman et Deborra-Lee Furness au Normandie,Image: 757773703, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Jonathan Rebboah / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Hugh Jackman attends the 2023 Costume Institute Benefit (Met Gala) celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023 in New York City.,Image: 773488872, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Hugh Jackman, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- 75th Annual Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Event Featuring: Hugh Jackman, Sutton Foster Where: New York, New York, United States When: 12 May 2022 Credit: John Nacion/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
Hugh is decades-long friends with Rupert Murdoch. I wonder if that is why the worst tabloids media most owned by Murdoch kept this affair clean in the media. Otherwise I can’t imagine how this didn’t become bigger news. Even his ex-wife’s friends were willing to talk about it, but none of the tabloids reached out to them to get headlines about the most juicy details?
Woah thats nuts. Do you have a source on their relationship? Thats super weird to me. Ugh if true
There is a vanity fair article where Hugh himself talks about their friendship. It is beyond paywall. I am sharing its archive link, so you can read it. A quote from Hugh about Murdoch in the article, defending him after all the hacking scandals:
“A lot of people in his life are there for a long time. He looks after them and appreciates them. He’s very caring and thoughtful and incredibly respectful of everybody around him.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20241003042155/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/02/hugh-jackman-les-miserables-rupert-murdoch-friendship
So this is one of those prearranged things where they invite photographers to take pics of them while on a date right? Feels so old-school to confirm through People with “pap” pics.
I honestly think they should have waited longer to launch. But it is what it is. I hope their former spouses and their children are okay. I can’t like I really like Sutton, she is a mega-multi talent and Hugh seems like a good guy in general but this is messy no matter how careful they have been.
And this is selfish as hell on my part but I’m grateful for the gossip because this is going to be some shitty years coming our way.
He’s going on tour soon, wants it sorted before then.
They look so good together, and in love, so, good for them and good luck to them!
Please save your well wishes and good luck for the former spouses who watched the person who vowed ” till death us do part” walk out the door into the arms of another.
WTF!?!?!
You know they had an affair, right!? They both devastated their spouses by cheating. Foster has a small child! Even Hugh’s young adult children — “good for them” too? Can you ask yourself WHY they would need to call paparazzi to take photos of their relationship? Disgusting. Selfish in the extreme, but hey — they’re in love! 🤮
@FYI, I love people commenting like this “everything is love” philosophy. I am sure they would say the same thing if their own husband who made a commitment to grow old with you found a younger woman, they would be as grateful and preach about how love conquers all. Why should you stop looking for your soulmate just because you are married, right?
“They look so good together” is not what makes a relationship, and it’s kinda gross considering how much crap Hugh’s wife got over the years for not “looking” good enough for him. I get that people cheat and blow up their children’s lives as a result but I’m not rushing to celebrate that result.
Would it honestly have been better for them to stay in loveless marriages? We feel it when someone we love isn’t into us any more. It’s a painful place to be in. You can’t force someone to love you back and attempting to do so will cause resentment with emotional and physical isolation.
I feel sorry for the spouses, but now everyone has a chance to be happy. I wish all four of them well.
It would have been better for them to be honest and respectful. Get some counseling, get a divorce, figure your crap out. They took the lazy, selfish, arrogant way out. Crazy that so many people think that cheaters should get a pass on their crappy behavior because they think they are in love with the affair partner. It’s an excuse a child would make.
@Josephine, if Hugh was a woman, these comments wouldn’t be so generous towards her. Most people are familiar with Hugh in this cheating coupling, so the tone is set in favor of him. I definitely don’t think we would see such flowery comments for the cheaters if Hugh was the one getting cheated on and abandoned by his wife for a younger man.
Getting divorced is not the worst thing that can happen to someone. Staying in a marriage that isn’t work is though. For people who have had to make the tough decision to leave a marriage, it’s never easy but it is often necessary for everyone’s future growth and happiness. Aren’t there serial cheaters out there who are just lying assholes? Sure. Are there marriages that are long over before they actually end? Also yes. Sometimes someone finding another person to serve as a catalyst to end a no longer happy marriage is a mercy, but admittedly a bit lazy.
I used to have very black and white views about this but I’m a lot older now, have been divorced and in successful long term relationships that didn’t last forever and have seen many people go through all kinds of things. It’s a lot harder for me to judge other people’s relationships now. We really have no way of knowing what was going on any of these relationships.
People fall in love. It’s not always at a convenient time or place. Sometimes other people are involved in committed relationships. I’m not necessarily willing to say either Hugh or Sutton is a bad person for falling in love with one another. BUT I will criticize them for flaunting this relationship before their respective divorces are finalized. It would not kill them to keep it as private as possible until everything is finalized. Have some respect for your exes and kids to not be out in public with your affair partner until everything is done and dusted. Maybe that’s old fashioned of me. I don’t know.
Agreed. Some people who are in good marriages still find themselves wanting something else. They aren’t interested in, or willing to put the effort into, making their marriage work, and would rather start over with someone new. That’s their prerogative. But if Hugh loved and respected Deborah as much as he always said he did, it’s pretty crappy of him to go public with his side-piece now, before his divorce is final.
“they aren’t interested in, or willing to put the effort into, making their marriage work…” That implies that any marriage can be made happy again or good again with “work.” But that’s not the way relationships work. Sometimes one or both people fall out of love and no amount of “work” is going to fix the marriage. I don’t believe that people should stay married in relationship that are longer workable. We don’t know the inner workings of either marriage and what was happening in them so it seems like a big leap to just assume Hugh Jackman just stopped making an effort and he could have fixed it if he’d only tried.
Yes, it sucks that he fell in love with a costar. And maybe they did have an affair before either person separated from their spouse. It’s messy and not kind. But love and relationships are sometimes messy and not kind.
You cannot make someone love you. And I don’t think anybody should have to stay in loveless or unhappy relationship.
And for people claiming he or Sutton were “deceitful…” none of us know that. And even when someone breaks up with their spouse or partner in an honest way, it can still be just as heartbreaking for the other person that wants to stay in the relationship. “Hey, I don’t love you any more and I’ve developed feelings for someone else. I have not acted on those feelings but I think our relationship has run it’s course and I want a divorce.” Those are harsh words, too. But again, no one is obligated to live a lie and stay in a relationship with someone they are no longer in love with.
I mean, at least she’s age-appropriate? Lol I don’t know anything about her but I have a feeling I’m about to learn more than I needed!
27 years of marriage is a long time & people change.
Then leave the marriage in an honorable way — without deceit. Certainly there is no need to publicize going-on-a-date-while-still-married. Crikey.
This. Be respectful.
Also, it seems absurd to call in love when they were each married to someone else. That’s not love — that’s infactuation, or interest, or running from their marriage, etc. It’s not “love” because they don’t have the ability to fully form a relationship when they are with someone else and hiding. Love, if at all, would come much later.
Funny how prior to this a lot of folk were convinced his marriage was a beard. This really gives the lie to those rumours
Yeah. I had to laugh. I remember when there was an affair and remarriage in my family, my grandmother said that we won’t know for ten years if they did the right thing. That’s become my standard for judging these things. There is a balance between affairs are bad and people deserve to be happy. Some people will never be OK with these two. Just saw something that reminded me that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson met on set while he was married to someone else. Not all marriages are happy or end well.
He might be bi. There were a lot of rumors about him hooking up with men and his wife being ok with it.
That’s exactly why I think we’re getting a quick People roll out of this relationship. Tamps down any questions, takes a soft PR hit and has cover.
And the rumours were consistent for decades.
This is certainly a look. Team Deb.
Yes, people can change over 27 years of marriage. He could have ended his marriage prior to starting something with Sutton. Same for her.
Team DLF all the way. Part of his popularity was his obvious love for her. Aussies love her.
My heart aches for Deb. He has clearly moved on and is in the bliss of new love while she has to deal with the betrayal and find closure in a vastly more difficult way.
They are not cute. At all. Best PR in situations like this is to wait and keep it completely private until everyone is legally divorced and some time has gone by before making your pap strut. It seems a bit rubbing their exes and kids’ noses in it to me. Not that I know the true situation at all it’s just what it comes off as.
Yeah there is something about their obvious delight in one another that is yucky. Like, “put it away, kids”
I hate to say this but when you get to a certain age you start asking yourself ultimate questions, and sticking to a relationship because you promised to even as you have fallen hard for someone else feels unbearable.
The thing that guts me about the publicity pix is that the two of them had a mad crazy spark–I wonder if even they knew it was happening at the time–if they did I think they may have tried to cover it up. But there they are, two happily married to other people co-stars very pleased to be working on a show together. I find it entirely believable this started out innocently.
I hear everything about how low and callow it is that they deserted long time spouses to be together. But to quote Dawson’s Creek, these two were on a collision course with each other.
Come ON. A collision course? They didn’t even know what was happening? Puh-lease. They are both grown-ass, sentient adults. If you don’t want to be married anymore, then leave the marriage. Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t devastate a seven-year-old child by breaking up her family. Jesus.
And for sure don’t call the paps to rub salt in your ex’s wound. 🤢 That is indeed low and callow.
My thoughts echo so many of the previous comments….yes, people change over time but wait til the ink is dry on both divorces before rolling out the pap stroll, sympathy for the 2 spouses and kids dealing with the fallout, etc.
And I know people have affairs, marriages end, but what saddens me as well is this was an office affair. They weren’t on a set away from home/family, both Hugh and Sutton were (I’d assume) going home to their respective spouses and children at the end of the night. I’d also guess that during the rehearsals and show run their spouses and families met several times, perhaps even socialized, while this affair, even if it was “just” emotional at the time, was happening. Famous or not, having witnessed this happen to a couple friends, happening so close to home makes the deceit even more painful.
Agreed that this rollout feels a little fast, but is the suggestion of some folks to stay in a marriage because “commitment!” when you know you actually like someone else better? That doesn’t sound like a marriage I would want to be in and also runs the risk of giving the kids a poor example of romantic relationships which could land them in therapy just as easily as a split. Clearly, marriage is not “til death do us part” anymore because nearly half end in divorce.
Melissa, I hope you will save this response and read it when your husband says to you, “our romantic relationship has run it’s course and I’ve discovered that I actually like someone else better “.So tata.
@Libra, I’m genuinely curious as to how you would want to proceed if your partner ever did fall in love with someone else. Do you want to stay married even when you know their feelings (assuming there are no financial or other impediments that require you to keep your legal married status)? Is that really something you would live with?
I feel similar to Melissa that I wouldn’t want to stay married if I learned my partner loved someone else.
Don’t start wishing that the marriage of posters goes belly up. Keep your parasocial tendencies in check.
For people commenting on the timing: the likeliest scenario is that a tabloid had photos and was getting ready to run with it. So they do the controlled shoot and story with People to take control and devalue the story. It also lowers the value of photos of them together overall and make them (slightly) less of a paparazzi target. It’s Public Relations 101.
I hope they make it and are in it for the long haul. This relationship has blown up several lives and appears to have hurt a lot of innocent bystanders (like their kids). So I hope it was worth it for these two and they make it.
I don’t condone infidelity and I’d be devastated if my husband was unfaithful. That being said, at least Hugh Jackman didn’t cheat with a much younger woman. They are age appropriate, talented professionals. So many of these guys hook up with women 20 + years younger.
Sometimes people fall in love with people who aren’t their spouses. Good grief. He seems to have handled it well and respectfully.
Sutton is very good at starting new relationships while still in the old one, so this should go well until she has her next production and falls for that leading man, too.
Why is everybody rushing to victimize Debra? Ppl assuming she’s been disrespected just bc Sutton is younger are actually the ones disqualifying Debra bc of her age.
We don’t know her. For all we know, she was over it and just waiting for the kids to go college to start a single life. She dropped a very succesfull career to spend decades supporting Hugh and mostly raising their kids. It’s perfectly understandable if they both grew emotionally apart from each other.
Of course Hugh and Sutton cheated, and most likely don’t feel good about it. Infidelity will never get my praise but life happens and an unhappy marriage is one of its triggers.