It has been a while since Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise — one of Hollywood's former golden
couples — made tabloid headlines as an item. Starring in three films together — Days of
Thunder, Far and Away, and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut — the two were a true power couple.
Well, until they weren't. In 2001, Cruise filed for divorce, with many speculating this was due
to his membership in the Church of Scientology, from which Kidman distanced herself in 1997.
At the time, she spoke against the controversial religion, telling The Sydney Morning Herald,
"I wouldn't classify myself as a Scientologist." Following her divorce, Kidman threw herself
into her work, winning a Best Actress Oscar for 2002's The Hours. She revealed to Entertainment
Tonight in 2016 that she was, quote, "running from [her] life at that time." Despite this,
Kidman would find new love in 2006, and marry country star Keith Urban.
In addition to the daughters she has with Urban, Sunday and Faith, Kidman also shares children
Isabella and Connor with Cruise, whom they adopted in 1992 and 1995, respectively. In spite of this,
Kidman hasn't spoken publicly about her ex-husband of 11 years since 2018.
Understandably, Nicole Kidman has not name-dropped Tom Cruise in interviews in years to honor husband
Keith Urban. In fact, the last time Kidman discussed Cruise publicly was in a 2018
interview with The Guardian. Kidman told the outlet,
"I feel out of respect for [Keith], I don't want to talk about that. […] Nobody would sit at a
dinner party and answer questions about their ex while their current partner is sitting there.”
Kidman then self-deprecatingly admitted, "I have read stuff I have said in the
past and thought: 'Bloody hell, Nicole! Keep your mouth shut!'"
Kidman also rarely speaks about her two children with Cruise, Connor and Isabella.
The actor explained to Who in 2018 that she's, quote, "very private about all that."
She added, "I have to protect all those relationships.
I know 150% that I would give up my life for my children because it's what my purpose is."
Given that Kidman has also not been sighted in public with her eldest two
in a long while, rumors flew that she had been cut off from them by the Church of
Scientology. How true was this gossip, though? Nicole and her children with Tom Cruise, Connor
and Isabella, have a heavily debated relationship. Per Now To Love, the last photographed sightings
of Kidman and the two were shot days prior to her June 2006 wedding to country crooner Keith Urban
in Sydney, Australia. Since then, however, some have wondered if Kidman's designation as an SP,
or, quote, "Suppressive Person," by the Church of Scientology, has seemingly driven them apart,
as Connor and Isabella are members of the church like their father.
Outspoken ex-Scientologist Leah Remini only fueled this rumor in her 2015 memoir
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. According to Now To Love,
she wrote that when she asked Isabella in 2006 if she stayed in touch with Kidman, she replied,
"Not if I can help it, she's a f**king SP." However, Tom denied to Oprah Winfrey in 2008,
that Kidman was blocked from her kids, saying, "We share custody. Whenever."
Connor also shut down the speculation to Woman's Day Australia in 2014, saying,
"I love my mum. I don't care what people say, I know that me and Mum are solid."
Kidman seemed to reinforce her supportive relationship with Connor and Isabella to Who.
In 2018, she said, "They have made choices to be Scientologists
and as a mother, it's my job to love them.” Though Kidman and Cruise looked like the
picture-perfect couple in red carpet photos, Nicole revealed since her 2001
divorce from Tom that she felt engulfed by his shadow during their 11-year marriage.
“It’s true that the road my husband and I chose to travel on was paved with many speed bumps.”
Kidman told Glamour in 2008, "I felt I became a star only by
association. We would go to the Oscars and I would think, 'I'm here to support him.'”
After meeting Cruise on the set of their first film together—1990's Days of Thunder—Kidman
told Harper's Bazaar in 2012 that she was, quote, "deeply shy" during their marriage. Furthermore,
she revealed that post-divorce, she rediscovered her calling in life.
She said, "I started to do what I've
been doing since I was 14, with some gravitas." Not only did Kidman win the Best Actress Oscar
in 2003 for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours, but her 2001 horror arthouse film The Others was
a rare critical and commercial success. Kidman told Harper's Bazaar,
"Having your work be the basis of fame, that's a far more stable feeling."
Kidman's marriage to Keith Urban also reflects personal growth. She shared with the outlet that
unlike her relationship with Cruise, Urban was, quote, "more like an ocean; he took me out."
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