How Nicole Kidman navigated her divorce from Tom Cruise 24 years before Keith Urban split



She’s been through this before.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s shocking split comes more than two decades after the actress went through another highly publicized divorce involving children — her 2001 split from Tom Cruise after 11 years of marriage and two kids together.

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Kidman and Cruise met on the set of “Days of Thunder” and got married a year later on Christmas Eve in 1990. Similarly, Kidman also had a quick engagement after meeting Urban in 2005, dating for a year before tying the knot in 2006.

Kidman and Cruise adopted daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995. Meanwhile, Kidman shares two daughters with Urban: Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14.

Nicole Kidman went through a highly publicized divorce 24 years ago when she spilt from Tom Cruise in 2001. Leonardo Cendamo
Cruise and Kidman met on the set of “Days of Thunder” and got married just a year later. FilmMagic, Inc

Kidman reflected on her marriage to Cruise in a 2012 interview with DuJour, admitting she was “so impulsive and naive” when she got married at 22.

“I was reeling with Tom. I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him,” she said.

The “Mission Impossible” star eventually filing for divorce and citing irreconcilable differences in 2001 was a surprise even to her and she tried to save their marriage, according to court documents obtained by ABC News at the time.

“On Dec. 24 the parties had happily celebrated their 10th anniversary with a group of friends. During the balance of December and thereafter the parties were intimate; In fact [Kidman] became pregnant by [Cruise] but lost the baby through a miscarriage,” the court papers state.

Kidman said she was “impulsive and naive” when she married Cruise at 22 years old. Getty Images
Cruise filed for divorce from her in 2001 after 11 years of marriage. In court documents, Kidman said she tried to save their marriage and that him filing for divorce was a shock to her. Getty Images

“[Kidman] protested [Cruise’s] intention to dissolve their marriage and urged him not to leave but to enter marriage counseling with her, or take other steps to address whatever problems may have existed in their marriage,” the documents continue. “[Cruise] said his decision was final and he departed the parties’ home.”

Kidman experienced major career success following their divorce, scoring a major hit with the critically acclaimed “Moulin Rouge!.” She later admitted she threw herself into work following the tumultuous period in her personal life.

“I wasn’t able to handle the reality of my life,” she shared at the 2015 Women in the World summit. “And as an actor, you have this wonderful thing where you can go and get lost in somebody else’s life and become somebody else for a period of time.”

Five years after their divorce, Kidman said she still loved Cruise.

Kidman and Cruise share two kids together: daughter Isabella and son Connor (pictured here). Getty Images
The “Big Little Lies” star found love again with Keith Urban when they met in 2005. The two also had a quick engagement, deciding to tie the knot after a year of dating. CBS via Getty Images

“That was a major shock,” Kidman said in a 2006 interview with Ladies’ Home Journal, reflecting on their breakup. “He was huge; still is. “To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him.”

She also mourned the “death” of their family.

“I think a divorce, and the demise of what your family is, is a little death in itself,” she said.

There now appears to be no bad blood between the exes. Cruise paid his ex-wife a rare compliment in May while reflecting on their 1999 erotic thriller, “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Similar to her divorce from Cruise, Kidman “did not want the separation and was trying to save things,” a source told Page Six. Penske Media via Getty Images
Urban is already “with another woman,” TMZ reported Tuesday. nicolekidman/Instagram

“I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice] because, obviously, she’s a great actress,” he told film magazine Sight and Sound.

In a parallel to her divorce 24 years ago, a source told Page Six Monday that Kidman similarly tried to save her marriage to Urban.

“She did not want the separation and was trying to save things,” but “sometimes relationships just run their course,” the source said.

Urban is reportedly already “with another woman,” according to TMZ.

Court documents filed in Nashville Tuesday and obtained by Page Six show the Oscar winner has requested that she be the “primary residential parent” to her and Urban’s two daughters.


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