Becoming parents wasn't as easy as Hugh Jackman** and Deborra-Lee Furness had envisioned.

Appearing on ABC's Katie Dec. 18, Les Miserables actor Jackman opened up about how their two children, son Oscar, 12, and daughter Ava, 7, changed their lives immeasurably.

"To be clear, Deb and I always wanted to adopt. So that was always in our plan," the 44-year-old Aussie explained. "We didn't know where in the process that would happen but biologically obviously we tried and it was not happening for us and it is a difficult time. We did IVF and Deb had a couple of miscarriages. I'll never forget it the miscarriage thing -- it happens to one in three pregnancies, but it's very very rarely talked about."

"It's almost secretive, so I hope Deb doesn't mind me bringing it up now," he continued. "It's a good thing to talk about it. It's more common, and it is tough. There's a grieving that you have to go through."

From the moment their son was born, Jackman said, "all the heartache just melted away." (The couple wed in 1996; Oscar was born four years later.)

"Many of you are parents, you guys know you can't prepare for that moment. Nothing can prepare you," the People's Choice Award nominee added. "You can't even explain how incredible it is and that avalanche of emotion that comes and how it opens up your heart, how it frustrates you, how it angers you, how everything is just all the sudden how alive you are as a parent."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Hugh Jackman Opens Up About Wife Deborra-Lee Furness' "Difficult" Miscarriages