It’s a new year, so it’s time for a relationship hard launch. Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster stepped out together for a casual dinner on Monday night that PEOPLE just so happened to capture totally natural unstaged photographs of. Their very clear images show the pair hand-in-hand in their first public show of unity since they both announced their splits from their respective spouses. Jackman and Foster met during the most recent Broadway revival of The Music Man.
These images are, of course, hilarious. Look at how totally spontaneous they are, so lovingly looking into one another’s eyes as they ignore the photographer, who can’t be more than ten feet away from them. How lucky of PEOPLE to land this exclusive story featuring one of their previous Sexiest Man Alive winners. What are the chances?
The accompanying article is sparse on details and pretty shallow in its reading of the relationship. It talks about how they loved working with one another, and how Jackman attended the closing performances of Foster’s most recent show, Once Upon a Mattress, this past weekend. Their divorces are mentioned, but PEOPLE, unsurprisingly, doesn’t go into all of the other talk about the alleged affair between Foster and Jackman.
Rumours of an affair spread through the Broadway world like wildfire during the run of The Music Man. Both InTouch Weekly and Page Six reported on it, but the latter quickly removed their story. After that story, Foster swiftly posted a picture of herself and her husband, screenwriter and Terriers creator Ted Griffin, on Instagram to combat the infidelity narrative. See, all’s well. And then Us Weekly threw one hell of a spanner into the works.
Last November, they made Jackman and Foster their cover stars, revealing the ‘untold story’ about their relationship. Yes, they fawned a bit over the hot singing celebrities, but they were also remarkably blunt in asserting that this was a romance that started as an affair. They said that sources had confirmed that Jackman had ‘blindsided’ his long-time wife, Deborra-lee Furness, by ‘running off with the mistress.’ That’s a major bombshell for one of the most-read and most trusted tabloids in the industry to drop, and as a cover story, no less.
So, what do we have now? We have Jackman and Foster going to the rival publication for a cleaner, softer narrative as a way to fully launch themselves as a grade-A couple. This is a magazine that relies heavily on maintaining a good relationship with the business they cover. It’s why their Sexiest Man Alive stories are so hilariously anodyne and transparently the work of industry marketing. What, you think John Krasinski won that title in a democracy? They want to stay on Jackman’s good side. He’s a big commercial draw, a heartthrob with nationwide appeal, and a coterie of famous BFFS. He’s Wolverine, after all.
But Us Weekly is also in the business of good PR and they still did that cover story. They still had to make the choice to potentially cut off their access not only to Jackman but his associates and maybe much more. They decided that the story was big enough, legitimate enough, and desired enough by their readers to get it onto shelves. Jackman has a pretty spotless reputation and is liked by everyone, and Us Weekly went, ‘but he’s also probably a cheater’ and led with it. If nothing else, it made them a fascinating opposition to PEOPLE.
Okay, so Us Weekly chose a side. But why did Jackman choose PEOPLE, other than having a good ally? Surely in 2025 it’s a bit passe to need to do pap walks to launch your relationship? I imagine a lot of people either don’t know about the affair rumours or don’t care. Frankly, it takes much more than that to get fans to turn against a hot male celebrity. But don’t underestimate the power of some old-school tabloid spin. If you want to sell your new romance, your first since you divorced your wife of over 20 years, as the real deal, you keep it simple. You go out in public looking casual but loved-up and let the carefully curated images do the talking. Perhaps it’d be quicker to do an Instagram selfie together but doing it with PEOPLE guarantees the framing they want. No mention of an affair, nothing on how Furness was blindsided, nothing on divorce courts. It’s all about love, baby, and puts that front and centre.
Maybe the pair will go red carpet official in the future? Foster could be nominated for a Tony Award for Once Upon a Mattress, which would offer safe ground for a cozy public debut. Neither of them has anything major on their schedules for 2025 otherwise, which means they can keep a low profile if they so desire. Which begs the question: why do this pap walk now? Is there a story coming out they want to get ahead of? Do they just want to confirm the chit-chat and then move on until they go back to work? Is he taking her to the Oscars? So many questions…
As much as I laugh at those photos, I do think it’s worth noting that, despite all of these machinations, Jackman’s reputation was never at risk. He’s too rich, too beloved, and too male to ever be knocked down by anything as frivolous as an infidelity scandal. Cheating is a tough one because it’s a deeply relatable issue for most of us and one that everyone has a strong emotional reaction to, but such responses can often descend into a kind of moralizing that is straight-up creepy. Tabloids indulge in this habit as often as they try to smudge it away, which is what makes these dueling press narratives so fascinating to me. Who gets to have those stories spun for them is where the true power lies. But that doesn’t make these photos any less corny.