Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness "always" knew they were going to adopt.

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness

The 'Wolverine' star and his wife - who share Oscar, 17, and Ava, 12 - tried to conceive naturally but after "a couple miscarriages" and IVF struggles, the couple decided it would be best to adopt.

Hugh shared: "Because of her age, we started [trying] straightaway when we were together. We struggled, a couple miscarriages, [in vitro fertilisation] - it was not easy. It was difficult, obviously particularly on Deb. I remember saying to her, 'We were always going to adopt - let's just adopt now.'

"Our motivation behind adopting was, 'Where is the need?' And we just knew from talking with people in that space, when we were looking around, that the biggest need is in mixed-race kids. A lot of people go into [adoption thinking] it's really important to them for the kid to look like them, and honestly, for Deb and I, that just never even was an issue."

And Hugh wants his children to grow up believing that personality defines you rather than your gender and the colour of your skin.

Speaking in The Jess Cagle Interview, he added: "I believe in life and I want to tell my kids that your personality is interesting, it in some way very much defines you, the colour of your skin, whether you're a male, whether you're a female, but that's not who you really are. What really defines you is beneath all that."