Just after the Golden Globes, Hugh Jackman decided to hard-launch his relationship with Sutton Foster. Hugh and Sutton have likely been dealing with each other for months, if not years. First they were friends and work colleagues, and then there were rumors of their extreme closeness right around the time when Hugh and Deborra-Lee Furness’s marriage fell apart in 2023. Sutton didn’t file for divorce from her husband until last fall though, so it’s possible she was trying to make it work with her husband for a while, even after Hugh left Deb. All I know is that the hard-launch of Sutton and Hugh came after more than a year of speculation. Apparently, Deborra had her suspicions all along, and she feels relief that Hugh is no longer gaslighting her about his thing with Sutton.

It wasn’t sadness, but relief that Deborra-Lee Furness felt when she saw pictures of her ex Hugh Jackman going public with his former co-star Sutton Foster. The Australian actress, 68, was married to the Hollywood star for 27 years before they announced their shock split in September 2023. Soon followed rumors that Jackman, 56, had embarked on a relationship with his The Music Man co-star, 49, who was married to her ex-husband Ted Griffin when the pair first started workshopping the Broadway production back in 2020. They confirmed they are now an item on Monday night after being snapped hand-in-hand on a dinner date in Santa Monica, California.

After months of being ‘plagued with suspicions,’ Furness can now move on, according to insiders, who claim the images confirmed that her fears were warranted.

‘Deborra-Lee feels a sense of relief to be honest with you,’ a source told DailyMail.com exclusively. ‘She has been plagued with suspicions. She was told it wasn’t true, and that they were nothing more than close friends who worked together. But something in her heart told her that this was not true. She trusted her intuition and her intuition was right. She finally feels at ease after getting confirmation that her fears and suspicions were warranted. She can now fully close this chapter and move on.’

The insider added: ‘She has nothing more to say about her ex-husband and his close friend Sutton.’

The Wolverine star, who played Harold Hill alongside Foster as Marian Paroo in The Music Man, decided to go public with their romance this week as they are no longer ‘interested in hiding their love.’

‘Enough time has passed for Hugh to stop playing games and hide his feelings and his relationship,’ a second insider said. ‘They both wanted to be considerate of their exes and anyone else that might be upset, but they aren’t interested in hiding. Hugh’s close friends have seen a rejuvenated glow to him and that is all thanks to Sutton.’

They said Jackman and Foster bonded over their individual marital struggles but didn’t strike up a romance until he was ‘out of the heartbreak of his relationship ending.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I said this before, but Hugh and Sutton’s work relationship-turned-romantic relationship definitely has the feel of something which began as an intense emotional affair and then got really chaotic. Chaotic enough to blow up both of their marriages. Emotional affairs are affairs, and yeah, I imagine that Deborra had strong suspicions for a while. Hugh probably told her that she was overreacting, that nothing was happening. I still wonder if Hugh’s nice-guy image and popularity will be affected.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.