Hugh Jackman's wife is happy he quit his 'Wolverine' diet. The 48-year-old actor, who has played the Marvel character for the last 17 years, admitted his spouse Deborra-Lee Furness is pleased he won't be taking as much care of his body now his stint in the franchise is coming to an end because his "job" is not to look better than her.

In an interview with the Metro newspaper, Jackman said: "I think she's just happy I'm off that diet. She said, 'You've got to understand that your job as a husband is not to be in shape and make me look good."

And he revealed his wife didn't even want him to audition for Wolverine in the first place.

He recalled: "She told me, 'Hugh, you were at the National Theatre with Sir Trevor Nunn, you cannot have claws coming out of your hands, this is ridiculous'. "

But he is delighted his final appearance is his best one yet.

He explained: "When I was in drama school I used to listen to an audiobook of John Gielgud reading his autobiography. 

"He talked about playing Hamlet 10 times and how, at the end of his life, he realised, 'The first one was the best', but I always thought I hadn't cracked it so I had to have another go."

He continued: "When we first started this I thought, please don't let this be my Hamlet! Because I had that same feeling of, 'there's more to to'. But unlike Gielgud, as I sit here today, I feel like this last one is the best."

Jackman enlisted the help of personal trainer Mike Ryan to get into shape and on a typical day, Ryan revealed that he would eat six meals a day rather than three large ones, get protein from natural, unprocessed sources, drink mainly water ad avoid all processed foods.

In a previous interview, he said: "We were using protein powder regularly. I made sure Hugh got plenty of amino acids before training and immediately after, and then he would have a slow-acting protein at night, such as cottage cheese."