MUMBAI: While many have questioned Madonna’s motives in adopting a second child from Malawi, Hugh Jackman isn’t among them. In fact, the 40-year-old actor and father of two says, “I challenge anyone who thinks you adopt a kid for a publicity stunt. Any parent knows that would have to be the most intensive publicity stunt in the world.”
The Wolverine star and wife Deborra-Lee Furness turned to adoption themselves, after suffering through multiple miscarriages. “But we always planned on adopting anyway, even if we had our own biological children,” he explains.
Hugh and Deborra are parents to Oscar Maximillian 9 and Ava Eliot 3 ½. The couple have been thinking about adopting again, but don’t want to press their luck! “Our first child was not the easiest of babies, which is why we left it five years before the second,” Hugh admits. “Our second was a dream baby. But there’s also the reality of all the additional work a third child would entail.”
“Every time we get on a plane with our two kids and are all crammed in together, we think maybe we will leave it at what we have.”
Talking about adoption, he says, “There are 130 million orphans in the world — who is looking after them? If you are a citizen of the world, on some level they are all our responsibility. And if you have got parents who want to adopt and there are children who need a home, it seems like a no-brainer.”
