It’s a classic gossip phenomenon, the Friday afternoon news dump! Per an exclusive report in PEOPLE, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness are divorcing after 27 years of marriage. In a joint statement signed “Deb and Hugh Jackman”, they said in part, "We have been blessed to share almost 3 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."
People are going to have a lot of opinions about this, because people have always had a lot of opinions about Hugh Jackman’s marriage and what it may or may not be protecting about Hugh himself. Just a reminder—a conversation about systemic forces that pressure people into maintaining certain public personas is one thing, a conversation about a specific person’s life when that person has not made any public statements about any facet of their identity is something else entirely. People, even famous ones, have the right to tell their truths when and how they choose.
Besides, I googled the ages of their kids. Hugh and Deborra-Lee share two children, Oscar, 23, and Ava, 18. Oscar is out of the house and Ava is apparently in her last year of school in Australia. It is not at ALL unusual that long-married couples split up when faced with an empty nest. For years, your lives have been about your kids and your careers and your home, and suddenly, the kids are out of the house, and you have all this time and space and silence to fill and for a lot of couples, this is when they realize they’re different people, and maybe want different things. I’m just saying, there are perfectly normal explanations for a popular Hollywood couple to divorce after 27 years of marriage. It doesn’t HAVE to be a conspiracy.
But SPEAKING of conspiracy, and I KNOW the ink isn’t even dry on the papers yet, but is it too soon to start gossip genie’ing Hugh with people? The possibilities are endless!
Discussion thread open for this post on The Squawk.
