Ladies, I support Deborra-Lee Furness.
Hugh Jackman’s rumored romance with co-star Sutton Foster was supposedly Broadway’s worst-kept secret, and as I write this, the rumors are in overdrive once again.
Not only is Deb’s ex-husband reportedly madly in love with Sutton, 49, but Hugh’s best friends, Hollywood power couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, apparently knew all about the relationship and kept it a secret .
A source told RadarOnline that Deb was “seething with rage at being the last to know.” And if that’s true, who can blame her?
It’s Deb I want to focus on, ladies, because if there was ever a time for women to need to stand in solidarity with one another, it’s now.
Let’s assume the rumors aren’t just sensational nonsense. To break it down simply: your ex-husband moved on pretty quickly with a colleague and everyone in his circle knew it.
And worse than that, they decided not to tell you.
Not only has the man you love betrayed you, but so have your closest friends. It is the ultimate humiliation, a slap, another betrayal. And it makes my blood boil.
Hugh Jackman’s rumored romance with co-star Sutton Foster was supposedly Broadway’s worst kept secret.
Deb is reportedly “seething with rage at being the last to find out” about Hugh’s new relationship.
If I were in Deb’s position, the question I would ask myself is, ‘Well, who others knew?’
They say ignorance is bliss, but I firmly believe that knowledge is power. I have always insisted that my partners and friends tell me the truth, even if it will hurt. I’d rather know than not know. When I am armed with the facts, I can act accordingly.
I don’t want there to be quiet pity or quiet voices when I walk into a room. Spare me that, at least. I hope my husband of three decades and our mutual friends respect me enough to be honest.
But, if rumors are to be believed, Deb didn’t understand that. Not only does it seem like half of his A-list peers apparently knew about Hugh’s affair, but I’m guessing the cast of The Music Man did, too.
So Hollywood knew (supposedly). Broadway knew it (supposedly). Who else?
Now, let me be clear: I am not suggesting that I know the facts here. The source is RadarOnline, not The New York Times.
I don’t know if there’s any truth to the rumor that Deb was “the last one to know.” All I know is that in normal life, far from Hollywood, these kinds of things happen. all the time. And it’s heartbreaking. You feel like a damn fool. That’s why the story hit me like a punch in the stomach.
For now, let’s look at the possibility that Deb was the last to know. I know a pretty famous actor who told me he wasn’t surprised when he heard the rumors.
“The close-knit atmosphere of a theater production means that the actors know each other very well,” he tells me.
‘They live in this wrapped bubble and they all have great intimacy with each other. It would be safe to say that the cast members would have known about the relationship.
Oh. I don’t think there are many women reading this who didn’t feel Deb’s pain.
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With their 13-year age difference, this was surely something Deb feared: that her handsome ‘toy’ husband, Australia’s Mr. Nice Guy, would eventually end up with someone younger.
As women, we feel this deeply. We all know a woman whose husband replaced her with someone younger, and many of us right now know a couple who just separated and he has already moved on.
Would you tell Deb if she were your friend? Don’t you think she deserves to know? Do we have the right to know when our exes move on so quickly?
Yes, I think so. There’s no worse feeling than being the last to know when your ex has found someone new, especially if you’ve recently broken up. I can’t imagine a friendship surviving knowing that someone had that information but kept it a secret from me.
Again, put yourself in Deb’s shoes for a moment. The actress and producer is one year away from turning 70. She loved a man for three decades, raised two children with him, and, let’s face it, put her career aside so he could bask in the glory of her Hollywood success. Now of retirement age, she has been replaced by a woman almost 20 years her junior.
That’s pretty heartbreaking.
The couple issued a statement announcing their separation in September last year and just over 12 months later, reports emerged that Hugh and Sutton were a couple, having grown up during the production of their musical The Music Man, which premiered in February 2022.
Let’s call a spade a spade, ladies. The timeline overlaps.
According to rumors, close friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds knew about Hugh and Sutton, but didn’t tell Deb.
Don’t friends have an ethical responsibility to reveal information like this? After all, isn’t that the definition of friendship? If not, what the hell is it? Dinners and movie nights? Coffee and shopping dates? Is that the extent of this? No, thanks. If I had friends like that, I would take my dog to dinner: I would be more loyal to her.
If your friends don’t talk, does that make them complicit?
And Ryan and Blake, hello? Did you really think no one would ask the question? did they know it? They constantly communicate with each other. How do you think you would feel, Blake, if the shoe was on the other foot? That would wipe the pearly white smile off your face, wouldn’t it?
As women, do we have a responsibility to tell the truth to our friends in situations like this? Men have the brother code. Surely the brotherhood can adopt something similar.
Come to think of it, were any of their mutual friends even remotely loyal to Deb?
This situation serves as a reminder of the importance of solidarity among women. We need to talk.
I can see the argument for not saying anything and staying out of it. Telling everything can be counterproductive. Maybe the scorned partner doesn’t believe you. Maybe the couple gets back together, comes out stronger, and suddenly you’re the bad guy.
But in Deb’s case, the marriage was already over when word began to spread that Hugh had found someone new. Surely someone should have told him, even if it was an anonymous text message?
Maybe the rumor that no one said anything to Deb tells you everything you need to know about Hollywood and the fake, fickle people who inhabit it..
With friends like that, who needs enemies?