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Hugh Jackman was just eight years old when his mother, Grace McNeil, abandoned her family in Australia and returned to the UK.
The Hollywood actor, 52, has previously described Grace’s sudden departure as ‘traumatic’, but it appears time heals all wounds.
Hugh posted a photo on Instagram on Monday of himself hugging Grace as they both smiled warmly at each other, and simply captioned it: ‘Mum.’
The power of forgiveness: Actor Hugh Jackman posted this photo on Instagram on Monday of himself hugging his mother, Grace McNeil, who had abandoned him when he was child
Fans flooded the cosy photo with positive comments, including one who wrote: ‘Ma’am, you have raised a gentleman. My respects to you both.’
But another follower was quick to correct the record: ‘Actually his father raised him.’
Hugh told Australia’s Who magazine in January 2018 that his mother abandoning him as a child was ‘traumatic’.
The Broadway star was an eight-year-old schoolboy when Grace left him without even saying goodbye.
She left Australia and returned to her native England in the late ’70s, leaving her husband, Christopher Jackman, to raise their children alone.
Scars: The Hollywood actor, 52, told Australia’s Who magazine in January 2018 that his mother abandoning him as a child was ‘traumatic’. Pictured: an undated photo of Hugh as a toddler
Discussion: Fans flooded the cosy photo with positive comments, including one who wrote: ‘Ma’am, you have raised a gentleman. My respects to you both.’ But another follower was quick to correct the record: ‘Actually his father raised him’
After the couple divorced, Hugh’s sisters, Zoe and Sonia, went to live with Grace in the UK; Hugh and his brothers, Ian and Ralph, stayed in Sydney with their father.
‘It was traumatic,’ Hugh said, recalling his difficult childhood. ‘I thought she was probably going to come back. And then it sort of dragged on and on.’
The Greatest Showman star added that after his mother left the family, he saw her about ‘once a year’.
It wasn’t until he was ’12 or 13′ that it dawned on him his mother would never return.
Moving overseas: Grace (right) left Australia and returned to her native England in the late ’70s, leaving her husband, Christopher Jackman, to raise their children alone
In December 2012, Hugh told Australia’s 60 Minutes program that he still vividly remembered ‘the morning she left’.
‘I remember her being in a towel around her head and saying goodbye. [It] must have been the way she said goodbye,’ he said.
‘As I went off to school, when I came back, there was no one there in the house.’
He added: ‘The next day there was a telegram from England. Mum was there. And then that was it. Dad used to pray every night that mum would come back.’
Hugh once told The Australian Women’s Weekly: ‘The thing I never felt – and I know this might sound strange – I never felt that my mum didn’t love me.
‘I’ve spoken about it at length with her since and I know she was struggling.
‘She was in hospital after I was born suffering from post-natal depression. There wasn’t a support network for her here.’
Divided family: After Grace and Christopher divorced, Hugh’s sisters, Zoe and Sonia, went to live with their mother in the UK. Hugh and his brothers, Ian and Ralph, stayed in Sydney with their father. Pictured: Hugh and his father
Fortunately, Hugh and his mother reconciled years later.
He told The Sun newspaper in October 2011: I am 43 now and we have definitely made our peace, which is important.
‘I was always quite connected with my mum. I have a good relationship with her.’
‘I have a good relationship with her’: Hugh and his mother reconciled years later, with the actor saying in 2011: ‘We have definitely made our peace, which is important’
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