Nicole Kidman was just 22 years old when she met future husband Tom Cruise while filming the 1990 race car thriller Days of Thunder. Now, the legendary actress is opening up about how she handled the press that came with dating then marrying one of Hollywood’s top stars.
“I was young. I think I offered it up?” Nicole laughed about how she dealt with the media scrutiny during an interview for Harper’s Bazaar‘s October cover story. She and Tom went on to wed on Christmas Eve 1990 and were together for more than 10 years, until Tom abruptly filed for divorce in 2001, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
“Maybe I’ve gotten a bit more trepidatious, but I’m always trying to be as open as possible. I just prefer to live in the world that way,” the 54-year-old added about press attention. She noted, “I’m wary at times, and I’ve been hurt, but at the same time I much prefer a warm approach rather than a prickly shutdown approach. My husband, Keith [Urban], says that when he met me, he said, ‘How’s your heart?’ And I apparently responded, ‘Open.’”
Nicole and Tom were Hollywood’s biggest power couple throughout the ’90s. They were always supporting each other’s careers, appearing on red carpets, and were just so glamorous. They even renewed their wedding vows on Christmas Eve 2000 at Tom’s mansion in Telluride, Colorado.
“I was so young when I got married. I look back now and I’m like, ‘What?’” she told the U.K.’s Red magazine in 2016. “You look at Taylor Swift, I mean how old is she? She’s 26. I had two kids by the time I was 27, and I’d been married for four years. But that’s what I wanted.” Nicole and Tom adopted daughter Isabella in 1993, followed by son Connor in 1995.
Nicole was absolutely devastated when Tom pulled the plug on their marriage. “Our life together was perfect. It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system. That was a great relationship. I think it ran its course. I was really damaged and not sure whether [love and marriage] was ever going to happen again to me.”
Fortunately, the stunning actress found love again with Country music superstar Keith, whom she married on June 25, 2006, in Sydney, Australia. They’ve gone on to have a family of their own, with daughter Sunday Rose arriving on July 7, 2008, followed by a second daughter, Faith Margaret, who was born via a surrogate on Dec. 28, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. The couple celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss in 2021.