Deborra-Lee Furness shares her experience raising adopted children 

She’s a mother of two adopted children, and on Wednesday, Deborra-Lee Furness spoke about raising kids from different cultural backgrounds.  

Speaking to People, the 64-year-old said she and her husband of 24 years, Hugh Jackman, have always embraced their children’s heritage.

Deborra-Lee and Hugh, 52, are parents to son Oscar, 20, and daughter Ava, 15, who both hail from different cultural backgrounds.

She confessed that while a lot of her parenting has been influenced by her own mother, she’s also aware that her children ‘have a separate lineage’.

Describing it as ‘just another little hurdle to jump over’, Deborra-Lee said she’s always encouraged her children to embrace their backgrounds.

After discovering Oscar is part Bosnian, she said the family bought a Bosnian cookbook, which made her son ‘very proud’ of his heritage.

And she said Ava has Mexican heritage, so the family travelled to Mexico so she could embrace her roots.  

‘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,’ she explained.

Deborra-Lee said knowing her children come from diverse backgrounds ‘opens me up to be more open’. 

She said knowing they have core differences makes things ‘more challenging’ but also ‘more exciting’. 

In a September 2011 interview with the Herald Sun, Hugh revealed that his children being adopted hasn’t impeded his relationship with them at all.

‘I don’t think of them as adopted – they’re our children. We feel things happened the way they are meant to. Obviously, biologically wasn’t the way we were meant to have children,’ he said at the time.