Hand in hand, with beaming smiles on their faces, Hugh Jackman and his rumoured new girlfriend Sutton Foster appear to have gone ‘official’.

Looking very much like a loved-up couple, they giggled together as they headed off for dinner at a restaurant close to the actor’s home in Santa Monica, California.

The pictures, taken on Monday night, left The Greatest Showman star’s fans in little doubt that he has found love again two years after he announced his split from wife Deborra-Lee Furness.

The images also dispel one of Hollywood’s hottest rumours that Hugh, 56, is gay.

He has been the subject of such misguided hearsay for more than two decades, but speculation only increased in September 2023 when he and Deborra-Lee, 69, revealed their 27-year marriage was over.

‘We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,’ they announced. ‘Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster head hand-in-hand for a dinner date in Santa Monica, California, on Monday night

Co-stars Jackman, 56, and Foster, 49, in Broadway’s The Music Man in 2022, which ended its two-year run in January 2023

‘Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness.

‘We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition in all of our lives.’

Despite the warm words, murmurs began to circulate that Hugh may have already moved on. Soon, there were claims that he and Sutton, 49, had grown close while starring alongside each other in Broadway musical The Music Man, which ended its two-year run in January 2023.

Insiders on the show – in which the pair played the lead characters – say that they were seen ‘getting on very well’ offstage as well as on it.

Matters were also complicated, of course, by the fact that Hugh was still married to Deborra-Lee, while Sutton was with screenwriter husband Ted Griffin.

But their romance has been the talk of New York theatreland almost since the day he and Deborra-Lee – who have two adopted children, Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19 – announced their split.

Whispers about Jackman being gay reached a fever pitch as far back as 2017 when pictures of the actor enjoying topless runs on the beach with a very handsome personal trainer made him something of a poster boy within the gay community

Jackman with his then wife Deborra-Lee Furness in 2023. The former couple announced the end of their 27-year marriage in September of that year

And it wasn’t long before Deborra-Lee appeared to give credence to the rumours.

In October she ‘liked’ an Instagram post from a gossip blogger who claimed her husband was ‘running off with the mistress’ and planning a ‘soft launch’ of their relationship, said US Weekly.

But sources told the Mail she was ‘blindsided’ by the news that Hugh and Sutton were together.

While the alleged affair has been described as ‘Broadway’s worst-kept secret’, Hugh’s ex-wife appears to have been the last to learn of it.

It was a sad end to a relationship that began in 1995 when she and Hugh met on Australian TV show Correlli.

Just 11 months later, they married in Melbourne, with Deborra-Lee 13 years his senior.

Today, all the signs point to X-Men star Hugh being besotted with Sutton, who is seven years his junior. She and Ted, who have an adopted daughter, Emily, seven, filed for an uncontested divorce last year.

Now Hugh and Sutton, who both have homes in Los Angeles, are said to ‘spend as much time as they can together’.

The pictures certainly appear to show a blissfully happy couple – so much so that they have prompted speculation that both parties may have been aware they were being photographed.

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Their outing coincided with reports in the US media that Hugh was planning to go ‘public’ imminently with his new girlfriend. Over the weekend he had attended a performance of Sutton’s production of musical comedy Once Upon A Mattress, in Los Angeles.

‘They both look deliriously happy,’ said one industry source. ‘When people want to put things out there into the public domain they have been known to call the paparazzi.

‘The rumours have been going on for a while now – maybe Hugh and Sutton just wanted to get it out there and move on.’

Whispers about Hugh being gay reached a fever pitch as far back as 2017 when pictures of the actor enjoying topless runs on the beach with a very handsome personal trainer made him something of a poster boy within the gay community.

When his split from Deborra-Lee was announced, one observer said: ‘The amount of people in Hollywood that went, ‘Told you so’ was enormous.

‘Finally, they thought he might come out. With changing times and grown-up children it seemed like it could be the reason.’

Hugh once said that he believed the rumours date back to 2003 when – in his mid-30s – he played openly gay singer-songwriter Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz on Broadway.

Speaking about taking on the role at the time, he said: ‘Some people said, ‘It’s brave of you to play a gay man.’ And I think that’s very dated. Don’t you?’

During the production, he kissed male co-star Jarrod Emick on stage. Hugh said: ‘I was literally just locking lips… I started to laugh so hard… Some dudes do get upset, some dudes say, ‘Don’t say I’m gay,’ [but] I am good.’

This week he may well have killed off those rumours once and for all.