Image source, Jeff Overs BBC
- Author, Brian Farmer
- Role, BBC News, Norfolk
Actor Hugh Jackman has explained how his mother is the reason he supports Norwich City Football Club.
Jackman, 55, told the BBC how, as a child growing up in Australia, he decided to support the Canaries after asking his English parents where they were from.
His father Christopher told him he was from London and his mother Grace said she was born in raised in Norwich, where she lives again now.
Jackman, who was speaking during an interview with The One Show alongside Wrexham AFC owner and fellow actor Ryan Reynolds, said he chose Norwich City as his team as a result.
“My mum was born and bred and lives in Norwich,” said Jackman, who was born in Sydney and is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series.
“I grew up in Australia, my parents emigrated.
“I remember being about seven and saying to my parents, ‘I want to find a team.’
“‘Dad, where are you from?’ He goes ‘I’m from London’.
“I said, ‘well what’s the team?’ He was like ‘there are five teams’.”
Jackman added: “I said ‘mum where are you from?’ She goes ‘Norwich’.”
The actor said from that point on, he became a Norwich City fan.
“We haven’t won a lot,” he added. “We won the Milk Cup.”
But he went on: “It’s OK. I’m here for the long run.”
Norwich City’s celebrity fans
Hugh Jackman is not the only celebrity known for being on the ball with Norwich City:
- Television cook and writer Delia Smith invested in the club in the mid-1990s and owns 40% of the club with her husband Michael Wynn Jones.
- Actor, writer and broadcaster Stephen Fry is a club ambassador and served as a director between 2010 and 2016.
- Former politician and broadcaster Ed Balls served as club chairman between 2015 and 2018.
- Television presenters Jake Humphrey and Simon Thomas, Justin and Dan Hawkins of rock band The Darkness and musician Myleene Klass are also known to be fans of the Canaries.
“Sometimes I make big mistakes,” Jackman told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“I got a letter about a year ago saying, ‘Being such a huge Norwich City fan would I like to be a celebrity investor?’, like a small part-owner.”
He added: “I decided not to invest.
“And since then they’re on a run, so what do I know?”