BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Keep her locked up!
The “relieved” family of Hugh Jackman’s accused stalker yesterday thanked the actor for his kindness — and said they have no intention of springing Katherine Thurston from Rikers now that her sick crusade has been stopped.
“Thank goodness Hugh Jackman is taking the high road,” a Thurston relative who asked not to be identified told The Post.
“He could have blown the situation up for publicity, but he seems to understand the situation.
“We are so thankful to him for keeping the focus on her mental health and not criticizing her or making fun of her. He seems like he is trying to help.”
Jackman returned yesterday to the West Village gym where Thurston, 47, was arrested Saturday after following him inside, declaring her love and brandishing an electric razor full of her pubic hair.
“I feel unsettled,” the “X-Men” star, 44, admitted as he finished his workout. “My main concern is for my family, [and] I hope she gets the help she needs.”
On March 6, Thurston marched up to the star’s wife, Debbora-Lee Furness, who was with their daughter, 7, and said, “I am going to marry your husband.”
Thurston, of Bakersfield, Calif., has been charged with menacing, stalking, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon, and is being held on $15,000 bond, $7,500 cash. In the past 10 years, she’s been sentenced to 1,104 days in jail for nearly a dozen convictions, including for arson, theft and car theft.
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“She won’t be bailed out,” a relative said.
“We are relieved she is in custody, because she will get the help she needs and they will make her take her medications.”
Thurston’s California family said she had been tailing Jackman for more than a year — making a trip to San Francisco and two to New York — and were stunned the star had not called cops earlier.
Thurston, diagnosed as bipolar, was hospitalized last fall after being found standing outside Jackman’s West Village home, say her daughter, mom and two other relatives.
“We kept waiting to hear on the news that she had been arrested or that he had taken out a restraining order,” a relative recalled.
There is no record of any New York arrest last year.
Jackman also didn’t go to cops immediately after his wife’s encounter in March.
“Maybe he was giving her the benefit of the doubt,” a relative said.
“We can’t believe what she did. We can’t believe there was no restraining order from the past times this happened.”
Thurston’s Jackman obsession started years ago, her daughter said.
After her arrest this week, Thurston told cops she went to see Jackman at a San Francisco concert last year. Police sources said she was busted there and a restraining order was issued.