IT was the “deeply affectionate” moment that left those who saw it in little doubt that Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe has finally moved on from the heartbreak of his broken marriage.

Crowe was canoodling with Julie Burgess, mother of South Sydney football imports Sam, George, Tom and Luke, at Ed Sheeran’s Sydney outdoor concert at Allianz Stadium, Moore Park, on Wednesday night.

media_camera Russell Crowe spotted in the crowd at the Ed Sheeran concert. Picture: supplied

Witnesses reported that Crowe, 51, and Burgess, 54, came together for an “embrace and more” on the stadium concourse, a sight that, not for the first time, suggested the Hollywood star may have found love with the mother of the four strapping Yorkshiremen who are like surrogate sons to him.

“Loved @edsheeran in the rain,” Crowe posted to social media. “Thunder, lightning, torrential downpour and Sydney was rocking!!”

media_camera Russell Crowe and Julie Burgess at a Rabbitohs game in August. Picture: Instagram

media_camera Julie Burgess and Russell Crowe at a Rabbitohs game at Allianz Stadium, Sydney.

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Since separating in 2012 from Danielle Spencer, his wife of nine years and mother of his two sons, Crowe has developed only one firm and enduring attachment to another woman — to Burgess, the mother of four footballers who have all played for his rugby league club, South Sydney.

The couple met in 2009, two years before he and Spencer separated, after the actor made the trip from the British film set of his movie Robin Hood to persuade the recently widowed schoolteacher to release her son, Sam, into his care and let him play league on the other side of the world.

Julie lost her husband Mark in 2007 following a battle with motor neurone disease.