Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness always make sure to honour their children’s cultural differences.
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness
The couple adopted Oscar, now 20, and Ava, now 15, when they were children, and although their kids have a “separate lineage” to them, they always make sure to remind their brood of their heritage and ancestry.
Deborra-Lee said: "It's so interesting being a parent, and they've both made me smarter than I think I ever could have been on my own. But when you're a parent, you can't lie to them or yourself. They will shine a light on every one of your flaws, your Achilles heel, whatever. You've got to look at yourself.
“What I'm very interested in is epigenetics, and it's even more so when you have adopted children because I'm coming from my lineage of my mother, how she parented me, how her mother parented her, and I'm translating that to my children. But my children also have a separate lineage. So it's almost like we have more players at the table.
"We've got cultural differences in there, and I do believe these will play out generation after generation. So our family is just a little more late, I guess, at dinner time; a few more ancestors at the table.”
The 64-year-old actress, producer, and director “completely embraces” her children’s differences, and even helped her son discover more about his Bosnian ancestry, as well as visiting Mexico with her daughter.
She added: "When my son was younger, he found out he was part Bosnian, so we went and got this Croatian/Bosnian cookbook and he was very proud to carry that around when he was seven years old. My daughter has a Mexican lineage, so we've been to Mexico.
“We completely embrace the ancestors and the extended family; they're family to us. And it's in there, even though it's generational. It may be subtle, but it's in there.”
And Deborra-Lee says she and her husband Hugh - whom she married in 1996 - wouldn’t change their blended family for the world, as having different backgrounds to explore has made life “more exciting” for them.
She told People magazine: "So it opens me up to be more open to, 'Ah, look at that probability,' because so many times, if it's a birth family, you'll have the same dislike - you both don't like mayonnaise or something. You’ll have that, but we have other different spices in there, so it can make it more challenging and it can make it more exciting."
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