Hugh Jackman has revealed that he and his wife Deborra-lee Furness had suffered multiple miscarriages in the early stages of the pair trying to have a child.

Jackman and Furness have since gone on to have two children, 12 year-old Oscar Maximillian and seven year-old Ava Eliot, through adoption. However, on Katie Couric’s show Katie Jackman revealed that the pair had suffered an awful lot of heartache in their attempts to have a child naturally. “It is a difficult time. The miscarriage thing — apparently it happens to one in three pregnancies — but it’s very, very rarely talked about,” the actor said. “It’s almost secretive. But it’s a good thing to talk about. It’s more common and it’s tough, there’s a grieving process you have to go through,” he added.

The couple always wanted to adopt, said Jackman, and it was never a last resort. “To be clear, Deb and I always wanted to adopt,” he explained. “We didn’t know where in the process that would happen, but biologically, obviously, we tried and it was not happening for us.” Heartwarmingly then the pair have been made up with the kids they have had. “The moment Oscar was born all the heartache melted away. You can’t prepare for that moment, nothing can prepare you,” he gushed. “You can’t even explain how incredible it is and that avalanche of emotion that comes. How it opens up your heart, how it frustrates you, how it angers you and … all of a sudden how alive you are.”