Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness heading for a 'messy' divorce as shock reason behind the delay is finally revealed

They navigated Hollywood as a married couple for nearly three decades, avoiding the temptations and strains that intense fame can throw up.

But Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness are not having as much luck handling their break-up.

DailyMail.com can reveal the now-estranged couple have yet to file for divorce as their decision to dismiss a prenup is proving to be a point of contention.

Insiders claim their split could get ‘messy’ as they struggle to divvy up their estimated $250 million fortune.

Furness, 69, and Jackman, 56, announced the end of their marriage in a shock statement in September 2023, telling fans that they were 'shifting' and as a result had decided to 'separate to pursue our individual growth'.

Soon followed rumblings that Jackman had struck up a relationship with his Broadway co-star Sutton Foster, with the pair finally confirming their romance last week in what fans claimed was a staged picture opportunity as they left a Los Angeles restaurant hand-in-hand.

His newfound love has added to the growing tension between Jackman and Furness, who had struggled with ‘resentment and an imbalance of power’ towards the end of their 27-year marriage.

They were working towards filing for divorce before Christmas but were thwarted by the holidays and Jackman’s second turn in The Music Man alongside his new love interest.

They are now planning to file in New York ‘in the next couple of weeks.’

‘One of the biggest reasons why they haven’t yet filed is that they never had a prenup,’ an insider close to Jackman told DailyMail.com exclusively.

‘When they got married, they thought it would be forever. Who doesn’t? At the time, neither of them expected Hugh’s career to get as enormous as it has.

‘Because there was no prenup, and he made a fortune during their marriage, this divorce is not going to be cut and dry. It may even get messy because the stakes are high.

‘A lot of moving parts need to be worked out and there is a huge amount of money involved.

The insider insisted they both want to ‘make this as easy as possible,’ but that after three decades and one partner becoming a massive A-list star, ‘it’s not quite that easy.’

Furness and Jackman met back in 1995 on Australian TV show Correlli, when she was a major star, and he was enjoying his first role fresh out of drama school.

He proposed four months later, telling Today in 2018 that he knew two weeks into meeting Furness that they were ‘going to be together for the rest of our lives.’

They were married in Melbourne, Australia, in April 1996 before adopting their son Oscar, now 24, in 2000. Five years later they completed their family unit when they adopted daughter Ava, 19.

Since tying the knot, Jackman has amassed an eye watering fortune, estimated to be around $200 million, thanks to his turn as Wolverine in Marvel's blockbuster comic book franchise. 

He retired the role in Logan in 2017 before reprising the character - and hijacking the box office - last year with Deadpool and Wolverine alongside his close friend Ryan Reynolds.

Jackman has also enjoyed a number of Broadway roles, earned critical acclaim for Oscar-nominated films including Les Miserables and The Prestige, and has built up a healthy property empire with Furness.

The couple bought their first apartment together for $240,000 AUD in 1997, a year after they married.

They sold the two-bedroom property for $740,000 AUD in August 2015, earning themselves a tidy profit of half a million dollars.

The pair bought a three-storey apartment in the Meier Towers building in New York City's West Village in 2008 for $21 million. They listed the five-bedroom 'triplex' for $38.9 million in 2022. It is unclear if it has sold.

They currently own a $3.5 million, 2.5 acre property in East Hampton, New York, which they reportedly rent out for $166,666 per month, a $5.9 million Bondi beach house in Sydney, Australia, and a $21 million penthouse in Manhattan's affluent Chelsea neighbourhood, which they bought one year before they split. 

The division of assets is also complicated by the fact the duo are 'no longer friends'.

'Hugh and Deborra-Lee are cordial to each other, but they are no longer friends,' the insider said. 'They put their differences aside to co-parent and he cares a lot about is children.'

Their marriage started to fall apart during Covid, as previously reported by DailyMail.com, around the same time that the Greatest Showman star struck up a friendship with Foster, who was married to Ted Griffin at the time.

'They quickly became best friends and are still best friends,' the insider said of their blossoming romance. 'They are in a relationship, and he is incredibly happy.'

The insider insisted there was no overlap with Jackman and Furness by the time he started dating Foster.

But Furness raised eyebrows when her private Instagram account 'liked' a video from gossip blogger Tasha Lustig which claimed Jackman was 'running off with the mistress' and planning a 'soft launch' of his new relationship to test reaction just one month after they announced their split.

Adding credence to the claim was her friend Amanda de Cadenet, who commented on the same post: 'You are on point with this one. My beloved friend Deb is about to have her glow up any moment fyi!'

The Wolverine star, who played Harold Hill alongside Foster as Marian Paroo in The Music Man, decided to go public with their romance this week, with the loved up pair pictured kissing in a parking lot.

Furness appeared to brush off her husband's new romance as she joined her daughter at the Australian Open. 

She was said to be relieved on seeing the images as it finally confirmed her 'suspicions' that the pair would become an item.