‘Behind every great man there’s a great woman’.
Deborra-Lee Furness, the wife of Hugh Jackman,who was recently named the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ by People Magazine, married with her husband in April 1996.
Hugh Jackman declared that he met his wife when they co-starred on the Australian series Correlli in 1995 and they have made the wedding after three months since they ‘ve seen eachother for the first time.
They have adopted two children, Oscar Maximilian, 8, and Ava Eliot, 3, when they heard that the first ever National Adoption Awareness Week was to be held in Australia. They were keen to get involved.
"People are waiting for so long – a minimum of three years and sometimes up to ten," Deborra-Lee Furness said. "And you hear there are 133 million orphans in the world. There are families for the children – let’s make it happen faster."
"Adoption hasn’t been a priority – it’s not even included on the census so we don’t know the numbers of families with adopted children, who they are or where they are," she told ."
I always push for ethical, transparent adoption and parents absolutely should be put through all the hoops, but we can do it faster."
"When I started speaking out, the media kept saying "Deborra-Lee and her lobby group", but it was just me and my big mouth. It started with me looking at the reality of 103 million orphaned children in the world, and as a mother, thinking: ‘How can we have two year olds walking the streets, fending for themselves, looking through rubbish for food?
When we came back( to Aust), people kept asking me why it was so difficult to adopt here, because they know we have two adopted children. ..I was thinking, Hang on. I’m trying to care for these kids in Africa, and people are walking up to me telling me they’d like to adopt – so what’s in the middle? It’s these bureaucrats pushing paper around the desk for 20 years! So I wanted to facilitate the adoption laws being changed here solely for the purpose of finding families for the children overseas who I was already fighting for.
It was a big family decision for me to speak out because I knew it was going to be invasive. But if I’ve go the level of celebrity where people will listen, I’m going to use it for something that’s worthwhile. "