Hugh Jackman breaks down while remembering how his mother abandoned him at the age of eight during emotional TV interview





He is known for playing tough and hardened characters in his films, but when it comes to his family Hugh Jackman becomes emotional, especially when it comes to his family's past.



During an intimate interview on Sunday night, the Les Miserables star openly cried as he recalled the morning his mother Grace left...and never came back.



As he remembered the fateful day his mother said goodbye for the last time before fleeing to England and leaving Jackman, his four older siblings and his dad Chris alone to fend for themselves, the 44-year-old actor couldn't hold back the tears.



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Emotional: Hugh Jackman breaks down as he recalls when his mother left him aged eight on 60 Minutes on Sunday

Jackman was on 60 Minutes to promote Les Miserables but also opened up to interviewer Scott Pelley about the sad details of his childhood.



He said: 'I can remember the morning she left, it's weird the things you pick up.



'I remember her being in a towel around her head and saying goodbye, must have been the way she said goodbye. As I went off to school, when I came back, there was no one there in the house.



'The next day there was a telegram from England, Mum was there. And then that was it.



Heartbreaking: His mother abandoned his four older siblings as well as his father also Abandoned: His mother left and never came back one day. Then a telegraph arrived saying she was back in her native England 'I don't think she thought for a second it would be forever. I think she thought it was "I just need to get away, and I'll come back".

'Dad used to pray every night that Mom would come back.'

The Wolverine star also became emotional when talking about his father, who he called his 'rock'.

He said: 'My father is a rock. My father is my rock. It's where I learned everything about loyalty, dependability, being there day in, day out, no matter what.

'It's always about the family.

'It's not about work. And I think that's him living with probably some of his regrets.

'And feelings of maybe he at the wrong time put too much in his career.

Suffering: It turned out his mother Grace suffered from post natal depression

'And he doesn't want me to make me that mistake. In his gentle way, he always reminds me this the most important thing.'

Jackman said he never spends more than two weeks apart from his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children, Oscar, 12, and Eva, seven.

He explained: 'We choose not to. We don't like it.'

According to a previous interview in Australia’s Women’s Weekly magazine Jackman's English-born mother suffered from post natal depression and 'struggled' being so far away from home.

Reconciled: Jackman has since forgiven his mother and the pair see each other three or four times a year. Pictured at the W Hotel in London in June He also admitted that it took him until the age of 12 or 13 to realise that Grace was not coming back. He said: 'For many years, I thought it was not going to be forever, so I clung on to that. Up until that age of about 12 or 13, I thought Mum and Dad would get back together. 'Finally realising it wasn't going to happen was probably the roughest time to be honest.' Doting dad: Pictured out with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children Oscar, 12, and Eva, seven in Sydney in June

But although his mother's leaving scarred him, Jackman said he never felt she stopped loving him. He said: 'But the thing I never felt, and I know this might sound strange, I never felt that my mum didn't love me.' In recent years, Jackman and his mother have reunited and he has forgiven her. Close bond: Jackman describes his father Chris as his rock He added: 'There comes a certain point in life when you have to stop blaming other people for how you feel or the misfortunes in your life. 'You can't go through life obsessing about what might have been. 'We see each other three or four times a year.'

Dashing: Hugh was pictured leaving his New York City abode on Tuesday with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness to pick up their children from school

Hand in hand: Deborra held hands with Ava as they walk back from the Manhattan school. The actress and her husband had just attended a luncheon for Les Miserables





