Hugh Jackman and his ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness's amicable divorce appears to have turned toxic after he was spotted with his new girlfriend Sutton Foster, wearing a £60 hoodie emblazoned with the phrase 'Finish It'.
It started out as an unusually friendly divorce – at least by Hollywood standards. After Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness announced their separation in 2023 following 27 years of marriage, they went on to divide their combined fortune of £360million in a refreshingly amicable fashion.
Not for them the public histrionics, lawsuits and counter-suits, $1,000-an-hour attorneys on open-ended retainers and a protracted court and custody battle. Instead, just a brief but warm statement that September in which they said: ‘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... We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love and kindness. ’ But what once seemed the most harmonious split in showbusiness history – in which Hugh and Deborra-Lee ‘co-parented’ their children, Oscar Maximilian and Ava Eliot – now appears to have turned rather toxic.
Central to this is a decision by Hugh – the star of the 2017 film The Greatest Showman – to wear a £60 hoodie emblazoned with the significant phrase ‘Finish It’, just days after it emerged that Deborra-Lee wanted to meet his new girlfriend, Sutton Foster. Jackman stepped out in New York on Tuesday holding hands with Sutton soon after it was claimed that Deborra-Lee – who at 70 is 13 years older than him – had requested a get-together with her ex’s new belle to help her find ‘closure’ on the end of her marriage.
Hugh, 57, and Sutton, 51, were spotted heading to the gym together after this unusual demand. Hugh Jackman and his new belle Sutton Foster were spotted in New York heading to the gym.
The actor was wearing a £60 hoodie, emblazoned with the significant phrase ‘Finish It’ It was claimed that Deborra-Lee Furness – who, at 70, is 13 years older than her ex-husband – had requested a get-together with Hugh's new girlfriend to help her find ‘closure’ He is understood to have been ‘blindsided’ by Deborra-Lee’s request, and fans suspected he was sending a message by opting to wear his own Hugh Jackman Terry Fox Run Finish It hoodie, a style that raises money for the Terry Fox Foundation cancer charity, named after a Canadian athlete and humanitarian who died in 1981.
Hugh was previously seen wearing the hoodie in May 2025, when Sutton was pictured leaving his apartment in Chelsea, New York. One Hollywood observer said: ‘Hugh and Deborra-Lee’s split was so friendly – so much so, nobody could really believe it.
‘Now, three years on, it looks like it could well be going down a toxic path. Maybe she didn’t expect Hugh to move on so quickly to Sutton who, let’s face it, is far younger than her. ’ Indeed, it is the 19-year age gap that US sources suggest is the reason Deborra-Lee is so keen on meeting Sutton.
‘This isn’t about Deb being angry or wanting to read Sutton the Riot Act. It’s about closure,’ an insider told the Australian magazine New Idea. The source added that while Deborra-Lee was initially reluctant to meet Sutton, she now believes that doing so might minimise some of the perceived tension.
‘For the longest time, Deb swore off the idea of even being in the same room as Sutton,’ the source added. ‘But at this point it feels like something she needs to check off her list, if only to put an end to the awkwardness... also so she can speak her truth.
’ Despite the warm words in the statement announcing their divorce, chatter began to circulate soon afterwards that Hugh might have moved on several months before the separation became public. Claims emerged that he and Sutton had grown close while they starred together in the Broadway stage show The Music Man, which ended its two-year run in January 2023 – nine months before Hugh and Deborra-Lee announced their divorce.
Insiders on the production say they were seen ‘getting on very well’ off stage as well as on it. In July 2022, Sutton talked about how close she had grown to Hugh, saying: ‘We hang out in my dressing room before every show and just catch up.
‘Maybe because my dressing room’s a mess, we sit on the carpet... I’ve made this wonderful new friend. ’ Back then, Sutton was with her second husband, screenwriter Ted Griffin. She filed for an uncontested divorce from him in October 2024, just days before their tenth wedding anniversary.
They have an adopted daughter, Emily, now eight. Before that, Sutton was married to the American actor Christian Borle, from whom she was divorced in 2009. The close nature of Hugh and Sutton’s working relationship was not lost on Deborra-Lee. Claims emerged that Hugh and Sutton had grown close while they starred together in the Broadway stage show The Music Man.
In October 2024 she ‘liked’ an Instagram post from a gossip blogger who claimed Hugh was ‘running off with the mistress’ and planning a ‘soft launch’ of their relationship, according to US Weekly magazine. While it might now be almost three years since she and Hugh split, friends say it must be difficult for Deborra-Lee to watch him and Sutton together – for the couple are certainly thrusting themselves into the limelight.
Hugh regularly features in Sutton’s social media posts, where she makes it clear that they are besotted with one another. Earlier this month, Sutton dazzled at the Met Gala ball in New York in a gold gown by the US designer Monse Maison. She posted photographs of herself and a suave-looking Hugh gazing into one another’s eyes.
‘Oh, what a night,’ Sutton captioned the image. She also shared a romantic trip to the Norvin Green State Forest in New Jersey last December. Read MoreEXCLUSIVE 'She's seething': Friends reveal ugly war between Tess Daly and Vernon Kay... Referring to Deborra-Lee, a showbusiness source mused: ‘It must be hard to see that.
They really seem to be going for it as a couple. ’ It’s rather a sad ending to a relationship between Hugh and Deborra-Lee that began all the way back in 1995 when they met on the Australian TV show Correlli. They married just 11 months later in Melbourne. He, of course, then found stratospheric fame starring as Wolverine in the X-Men superhero films between 2000 and 2017.
There have long been false rumours that he is gay – Hugh has said he believes they date back to 2003 when, in his mid-thirties, he played the openly gay singer-songwriter Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz on Broadway. In 2017, pictures of him running topless on the beach with a handsome personal trainer made him something of a poster boy within the gay community.
However, his romance with Sutton Foster has certainly dispelled this myth. Hollywood insiders now suggest that Hugh will soon pop the question for the second time – a move that might mean even more humiliation for Deborra-Lee, who continues to watch from afar as her man moves on with a younger model.
‘That would indeed be a reason for things to become toxic,’ says one showbiz expert, adding: ‘Though quite how meeting Sutton would make that any better for her is very questionable. ’ Perhaps, say those concerned with Deborra-Lee’s feelings, her best move would be to take at face value the message on Hugh’s hoodie – to finish the whole business and move on with her life.
Hugh Jackman Deborra-Lee Furness Sutton Foster Finish It Hoodie Toxic Divorce
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