‘Had an Affair and Broke Up Two Families’: Hugh Jackman and Broadway Co-Star Plan to Escape Without Their Kids After the Holidays Following Backlash for Scandalous Affair

It appears Hugh Jackman, 56, and Sutton Foster, 49, apparently will not celebrate the Christmas season as a new blended family after their scandalous affair went public.

According to Closer Weekly, the co-stars of the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical “The Music Man” have decided to avoid spending the holidays with their respective children due to the backlash of how their union began.

Hugh Jackman and Broadway co-star Sutton Foster have decided to spend the holidays without their kids amid backlash over their affair. (Photos by Jean Catuffe/GC Images; MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

“They’re living apart because of the kids and they’re bracing themselves for way less time together than they’d like during the holidays,” the outlet reported as told by a source it did not identify.

The purported insider added, “They do want to be together, but at the same time they don’t want to push or hurt people. It’s a little stressful, to say the least.”

Jackman and Foster met while playing co-leads in “The Music Man” which opened on Feb. 10, 2022. It’s unclear exactly when their budding romance began speculation about their affair began around the same time.

“Hugh and I actually do. We call it carpet chat,” Foster answered when asked if she had a “The Music Man” pre-show ritual during a “Live with Kelly and Ryan” interview in July 2022.

She continued, “For some reason, we hang out in my dressing room before every show and just catch up… and so we sit on the carpet,” she explained. “We do, it’s like such a wonderful thing. We’ve become really good friends.”

“That’s been one of the best things of the whole thing is that I’ve made this wonderful new friend,” she added.

At the time the revival premiered at New York City’s Winter Garden Theatre, Foster was married to Hollywood screenwriter Ted Griffin. She filed for divorce in October, just days before what would have been the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary on Oct. 25, 2014.

Three years after tying the knot, Griffin and Foster adopted a daughter, Emily Dale Griffin, in 2017. Emily was born on March 5 of that year.

Meanwhile, Jackman ended his 27-year marriage to Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, when the former cast mates for the Australian television series “Correlli” announced their amicable separation in Sept. 2023.

Furness and Jackman also are adoptive parents. They adopted a son named Oscar Maximilian Jackman, 23, in 2000 and a daughter, Ava Eliot Jackman, 19, in 2005.

“Even if they can’t open presents together on Christmas, Hugh, and Sutton are talking of going off somewhere in the new year, just the two of them, for some needed R&R,” the unnamed person revealed to the tabloid.

Industry rumors suggested Jackman’s alleged romantic relationship with Foster led to the “Deadpool & Wolverine” actor parting ways with Furness.

The speculation surrounding Jackman and Foster’s extramarital affair has sparked negative responses from fans online.

“Good guys don’t cheat on their wives. If they are tempted beyond strength by their soul mate, good guys have enough respect for the woman they married to end,” a Yahoo commenter wrote, slamming Jackman.

One person complained, “There is no way that any of the kids are going to be cool with this situation for a very very long time. The two people who had an affair and broke up two FAMILIES.”

Another scathing comment read, “Stop trying to make this romantic. He cheated on his wife and family. It’s no wonder that his children don’t want to spend the holidays with him and the homewrecker.”

Someone else showed support to Furness following the split by typing, “Well, my sympathy is with the wife who gave up her acting career to more or less stay at home and raise their kids.”

Yet, one of Jackman’s supporters added, “I like him but what he did was wrong and disrespectful to his wife AND his kids. Dude cheated on his wife the mother of his children. I’m not sure how people who cheat just find it weird that family members have a hard time accepting it!”

Despite supposedly having a “deep connection” with each other, Jackman and Foster are reputed to be somewhat surprised by the online fallout of their new union.

“They are a bit shocked by the backlash they received. They expected some of it, but not this much,” Closer Weekly’s alleged source revealed.

However, the anger and disappointment directed their way from social media users do not seem to be preventing Jackman and Foster from continuing their secret romance going into 2025.