After failed attempts at having babies when she was with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman celebrated the 17th anniversary of her marriage to Keith Urban, the man who gave her the greatest gift; the gift of becoming a mother to their two children.
Nicole Kidman’s high-profile divorce from Tom Cruise played out publicly on an international screen but still, she refuses to share the explicit details of the events leading up to the split.
The Oscar-winning actor and the star of Mission Impossible met on the set of Days of Thunder, while Cruise was still married to actor Mimi Rogers, whom he divorced in 1990.
The Hollywood power couple of Kidman and Cruise married the same year. Kidman, who was 23 at the time they wed–admits that she was fully consumed by her love for the action star.
“He basically swept me off my feet. … And as happens when you fall in love, my whole plan in terms of what I wanted for my life–I was like, ‘Forget it. This is it,’” Kidman shared of her relationship with the Top Gun star. “I was consumed by it, willingly. And I was desperate to have a baby with him. I didn’t care if we were married.”
While together, the Hawaiian-born Aussie and Cruise appeared in a handful of films together, like Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Far and Away (1992) and Malice (1993), the latter films telling the story of a young couple wanting to have children.
Off-screen, the seemingly happily married couple were also trying to have children, something Kidman–who had two failed pregnancies with Cruise–revealed she wanted more than a career.
“From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies…And we lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic. And that’s when it came that we would adopt Bella,” she says in an interview with Vanity Fair. “There’s a complicated background to that, given that I never speak much about many things. One day maybe that story will be told. So that’s the way it came up, and we adopted Bella when I was 25.”
Two years after they had Bella (born 1992), Kidman and Cruise, a devout Scientologist, adopted Connor (1995).
In December 2000, the star of To Die For celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary with her Maverick husband, along with a group of friends.
“I thought our life together was perfect,” she said.
But two months later, her world imploded when Cruise announced he was splitting without explanation other than a brief, “Nic knows why.”
Kidman said her agents warned that with Cruise, her career was destined for destruction. “Once you become Mrs. Tom Cruise, you do know your career is going to die. You’re going to absolutely shoot yourself in the foot,” she recalled being told.
They were right, and divorcing Cruise turned out to be the best thing she could have done.
The star of the Golden Compass went on to earn her first Oscar nod for her performance in Moulin Rouge (2001) and then win her first Academy Award for 2002’s The Hours.
And then, in 2005, the beautiful star found her happily ever with one of country music’s hottest stars, Keith Urban, at G’Day LA, an event honoring Australians living in America.
“We were very, very quiet about it, and we managed to get through a long period of time without people knowing about us–which is pretty much our style still,” Kidman said about the early days of her and Urban.
The gorgeous pair came out as an engaged couple at the 2006 Grammys and married in June of the same year. Four months after their wedding, the Kiwi-Australian country-crooner checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for 90 days of treatment.
“I’ve learned an enormous amount having a relationship with someone who is in recovery. I’m more than willing to walk it with him. The two of us are very committed to our relationship,” she told Vanity Fair, speaking of their supportive and loving relationship. “We were in a very, very, very bad, painful place, and have managed to step through it…And that’s enough said. Anything else is overindulgent and unnecessary right now. And I think it jinxes it, in a way, and that’s why I don’t go on about my enormous feelings for this man.”
Now in recovery, Urban and Kidman split their time between homes in Nashville, TN, California, New York and Australia.
Despite being told the chances of her conceiving were slim, the couple welcomed their first “miracle” daughter Sunday Rose in 2006, only days after they celebrated their second anniversary. Kidman was 40 at the time.
“Having my baby has been a healing experience. It took me so long to have a child. I feel enormous gratitude. Sunday has healed an enormous amount in me. It’s a very private thing, but she just has,” Kidman gushed.
The blessings continued rolling in for the couple, that two years later, had their second daughter, Faith Margaret, who was born to a gestational carrier in 2008.
Recently, Kidman and Urban, 55, celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary with a steamy photo shared on Instagram, with the caption, “Happy anniversary my love.”
Fans raved about their love with comments like, “Happy anniversary to a beautiful couple! I love watching you together,” and “You two are sweet! Happy Anniversary!”
Earlier in June, on Father’s Day, Kidman posted an adorable photo of Urban in a go-cart, celebrating the day with their children. The photo is captioned, “Happy Father’s Day to the coolest dad there is! You are so loved by all of us! Your girls.”
With the majority of fans jumping in with Father’s Day wishes, some commented, “so sweet and very (hot),” and “So beautiful and precious.”
