I think everyone would agree that Nicole Kidman is a very successful, beautiful and talented actress.
But her life has not always been easy, and during her time in the spotlight, the Australian star of American origin has endured a great deal of emotional suffering.
Nicole Kidman recently shared new details about her high-profile marriage and painful divorce from Tom Cruise.
When Hawaii-born Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise married in 1990 after meeting on the set of Days of Thunder, they instantly became Hollywood’s golden couple.
At the time, Cruise was undoubtedly the bigger star of the two. And it was the Top Gun actor who did everything to make them a couple. Cruise noticed Kidman’s acting talent when she starred in the 1989 film Dead Calm. After that, Tom persuaded the producers of Days of Thunder to cast Kidman as his partner and love interest in the film.
As soon as Cruise and Kidman met, sparks flew between them. According to Kidman, her jaw dropped and she was simply blown away by the energetic and handsome Cruise, who was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time.
‘Before I met Tom, I had three very strong relationships. But I never intended to get married. Never. But he was just the most incredible, extraordinary man I had ever met,’ Kidman said.
Tom Cruise called Kidman the love of his life.
‘It was that special connection when you meet your soul mate. She is someone who understands. It was like a new life had begun for me,’ Cruz said in a 2002 interview with Vanity Fair.
After falling in love on set, a romance blossomed, and the A-list couple really did seem like a match made in heaven.
“I fell madly, passionately in love. And as happens when you fall in love, all my plans for what I wanted out of life were like, ‘Forget it. This is it. I was consumed by it, willingly. And I desperately wanted to have his baby. I didn’t care if we were married. That’s what I regret not doing,” Kidman said.
Cruise tied the knot with Kidman on Christmas Eve 1990, in a small and very quiet wedding in Telluride, a small town in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. Only a few members of each family attended the ceremony, which lasted just 30 minutes. One of the few outsiders who attended the wedding was actor Dustin Hoffman.
‘I would say it was the most secretive wedding in show business. It was so quiet that even my wife and I didn’t know about it,’ Nicole Kidman’s uncle, Barry Fawcett, said in an interview with the New York Daily News.
Kidman wanted to have children with Cruise immediately after the wedding, and it seemed that her dreams would come true sooner than many expected.
Turned to adoption
Unfortunately, however, in 1990, at the age of 23, she had an ectopic pregnancy. Cruz and Nicole lost their baby. After that, they decided to consider other options.
They adopted two children — daughter Isabella Jane Cruz (born 1992) and son Connor Cruz (born 1995) — when they were just a few months old.
For Nicole, adoption was a natural choice.
‘My mum has an adopted sister, so it was part of our family, and I knew it would probably manifest itself somewhere in mine. I didn’t think it would happen so early, but it did,’ Kidman said in a 2007 interview with Vanity Fair.
For years, the relationship between Kidman and her children — especially Isabella and Connor — has been a hot topic, as they appear to have followed their father, a staunch Scientologist, into the church.
Kidman admitted that she distanced herself from her children after they left for Scientology. However, in an interview with Australian magazine Who Magazine, she said she wanted to keep her relationship with her children private.
‘I know 150 per cent that I am willing to give my life for my children because that is my purpose,’ Kidman said.
As we all know, her union with Tom Cruise was short-lived. The Top Gun actor filed for divorce after 11 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.
‘A shock to my system’
For Kidman, the news of the breakup came as a surprise.
“Our life together was perfect. It took me a long time to recover. It was a shock to my system. It was a wonderful relationship. I think it just ran its course. I was very traumatised and wasn’t sure if I would ever love or marry again,” she said.
The breakup of the golden couple caused a sensation in Hollywood, with all the tabloids speculating about the reasons for the split. Some sources claimed that the reason for the breakup was Kidman’s desire to spend more time in Australia, while Cruise wanted to stay in the United States. According to other rumours, Cruise’s departure was due to Kidman’s fertility problems.
Nevertheless, Kidman always remained classy when talking about her previous marriage to Cruise. In 2006, she said that she still loved Cruise despite the acrimonious split.
“He was huge, he still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everyone else, he’s huge. But he was wonderful to me, and I loved him. I still love him.”
Of course, the actress also went through trials and emotional pain that she hid after the divorce. More recently, she has begun to speak openly about some of the painful memories associated with her past relationships.
Kidman, who is currently married to Keith Urban, told Harper’s Bazaar about the upcoming October issue of the magazine and the media attention she received after her breakup with Cruise.
According to Kidman, her acting career was overshadowed by all the speculation and rumours in the press. Recalling the media’s intense focus on her personal life, Kidman said:
“I was very young when I got married. Now, looking back on it, I think, “What?”. If you look at Taylor Swift, how old is she? She’s 26. By the age of 27, I already had two children and had been married for four years. But that’s exactly what I wanted.”
‘Maybe I’ve become a little more cautious, but I always try to be as open as possible. I just prefer to live in this world that way.’ .
‘At times I am wary, and I have been hurt, but at the same time I prefer a warm approach rather than prickly reserve. My husband, Kit, says that when he met me, he asked, “How is your heart?”. And I apparently replied, “Open”.’
I really like Nicole Kidman.
I like her acting in all the films I’ve seen her in. I’m so happy for her that she has found such stability in her marriage to Keith!
