Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman is speaking candidly about one of Hollywood’s most scrutinized relationships, describing her marriage to Tom Cruise at age 22 as something that felt entirely ordinary despite its extraordinary circumstances. The 59-year-old star opened up in a new cover story for British Vogue, reflecting on a union that reshaped her public life and, by her own account, taught her how to endure the relentless glare of celebrity.
Kidman and Cruise first crossed paths in 1989 during production on director Tony Scott’s “Days of Thunder,” the film that marked Kidman’s Hollywood feature debut. They wed on Christmas Eve 1990, and their marriage lasted 11 years before Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001, citing irreconcilable differences. Their split was finalized in August 2001.
Falling in Love With a Movie Star
Discussing how comfortable she has grown at high-profile events — red carpets, fashion shows, the relentless churn of celebrity appearances — Kidman traced that ease directly to the relationship that thrust her into the spotlight as a young woman. Being married to one of the world’s most recognizable actors from such a formative age, she said, simply became her normal.
Kidman recalled suddenly being 22 or 23 years old with a huge movie star husband, but said it seemed natural because they had fallen madly in love. Those around her were considerably less relaxed about the match, warning repeatedly that the marriage would cost her professionally. Her response, she said, was unequivocal: she did not care.
A Career That Defied the Warnings
Whatever professional friction the marriage may have generated, Kidman’s filmography during those years tells a different story. While tabloid coverage of the couple dominated newsstands throughout the 1990s, she built a body of work that established her as one of the most capable dramatic actresses of her generation. Titles including “To Die For,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” and “Practical Magic” each demonstrated a range that the spotlight of her personal life could not obscure.
She also appeared twice alongside Cruise on screen during their marriage. Their 1992 collaboration “Far and Away,” directed by Ron Howard, received a mixed reception. Their second joint project, Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999, proved far more lasting — Kidman played Alice Harford opposite Cruise’s Bill Harford in what became the final film of Kubrick’s career. In a recent interview with Sight & Sound magazine, Cruise revealed that he had personally suggested Kidman to Kubrick for the role, describing her as a great actress whose casting he championed from the outset.
When the marriage ended in 2001, Kidman’s career did not suffer the collapse her early advisers had forecast. That same year saw the release of both “Moulin Rouge!” and “The Others,” and the following year she delivered the Oscar-winning performance in “The Hours” that cemented her place among the industry’s elite.
Growing Up in Public
Kidman has previously addressed the age at which she entered the marriage. In a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair, she described herself plainly: she was a child when she got married, and she needed to grow up. The British Vogue cover story revisits that theme with additional texture, Kidman noting that so much of her adult life has been lived at the center of public attention that she can barely remember what preceded it.
The couple adopted two children together during their marriage — Bella, now 33, and Connor, now 31.
After her divorce from Cruise, Kidman eventually married musician Keith Urban in 2006. The two share daughters Sunday Rose, now 18, and Faith Margaret, now 15. That marriage ended in 2025 after 19 years together, and Kidman addressed that chapter as well in the British Vogue interview, describing a period of unexpected adjustment and an ongoing effort to stay emotionally open despite the uncertainty that now defines her immediate future.
What Comes Next
The interview found Kidman in a reflective but far from somber register. She spent part of this summer traveling through London, Ibiza, Paris, and Portofino, and described her social life with characteristic candor — capable of shifting in a single evening from a quiet Scrabble game to a late-night club, sometimes disguised in a dark wig to move freely among crowds. The picture she sketches is of a woman comfortable in paradox: immensely famous and instinctively private, analytical by training but governed, ultimately, by feeling.
The September 2026 issue of British Vogue hits newsstands August 20.