It’s sort of crazy to think about how much life Nicole Kidman has packed into her 49 years. Married to Tom Cruise at the age of 23, divorced by 33, escaping from Scientology, meeting Keith Urban, having two daughters with him, plus starring in more than 60 films and TV projects and she’s done plays too. That’s what she talks about in this Red Magazine cover story – how much life she’s lived and how happy she is now. I found her comments about her first marriage to be very interesting!
Getting married to Tom Cruise when she was 23: “I was so young when I got married. I look back now and I’m like, ‘What?’ 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.”
Celebrating her 10-year anniversary with Keith Urban: “That’s really big for us. It was really up and down for the first three months. We’ve been through a lot for ten years. And we’re stronger than ever. I say that while touching wood, and no way in a boastful way. I just say it with wonder. Absolute wonder. When you’re older, you’ve been through things, you’ve made mistakes. So you come into it [a second marriage], still giddy, but wanting it to last. We always consider the ‘us”. We say, ‘Is this going to be good for us?’ It’s the simplest phrase, but it works.”
On motherhood: “[Motherhood] is about the journey. There are going to be incredible peaks and valleys, whether you are an adopting mother or a birth mother. What a child needs is love.”
She’s happy to be a contradiction: “I was the girl that always wanted the white picket fence and everything that comes with that. I just have an incredibly complicated inner life – an imaginary, creative life. And those two things can collide.”
Emotional about motherhood: “Oh my gosh, the intensity of the emotions I feel! It’s not necessarily great for a child to have an intensely emotional mother. And I don’t want to be a helicopter parent so I’m trying to…balance the intensity of the love. It’s really hard.”
FOMO: “I don’t have that FOMO thing: fear of missing out. I can stay home and not go to the party. It’s so much nicer here at home in my jammies.”
[From Red & People Magazine]
Whenever I read older books, or read biographies of early-20th-century figures, I’m always startled by the early marriages too. Is that weird? Like, I’m in my 30s and I always thought there was something odd about getting married in one’s early 20s. That’s not a judgment on those who do, it’s more a statement of how societal norms shift. Taylor Swift turns 27 years old in December, but society (and her fans) still infantilize her and treat her like she’s just an innocent child. But 30 years ago, 40 years ago, a woman her age would have been already married and a mother, lest she be considered an old maid.
As for Nicole’s lack of FOMO… I feel her. I stopped having FOMO in my early 20s too. Now I happily sit at home and watch All In with Chris Hayes in the evenings and it feels amazing.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Red.
Nicole Kidman still can’t believe she married Tom Cruise
when she was 23Just what I was going to write!
Lol
HA! That’s probably more like it.
she got with tom while he was still married to mimi roger so she can’t be that suprised it didn’t work !
No she didn’t
I am such a loser. At the time I really thought they were so into each other.
I was really young but I loved her then – pre the frozen face and poker fade hair.
I thought they were so in love
Now my old dinosaur self just sees Scientology cogs and ground down teeth everywhere
I miss the old days
Truthfully, is that Isla Fisher on the cover?
I am about the age she was when she got married and I can’t even image being married right now. I used to think 23 was when you had your life together but I don’t even feel like an adult half the time.
I wish I didn’t have FOMO haha it’s not fun.
I got married at 23. Sooooo crazy when looking back, it feels like another life. Not even mine some times. So I can totally relate to what she is saying.
And agree… when I look back at my 23 yr old self, I think I got married because 1. I thought I was an adult and 2. I thought that was the next step in adulthood. Two things couldn’t be FURTHER from the truth. Haha
I felt the same. Looking back it seems like it was someone else’s life and not mine! i had the same reasoning for getting married. It was a big mistake, huge!
I’m 30 and can’t even imagine being married now. Although I’m not too keen on the idea myself. Our generation is just different, we don’t have the stability and economy to marry young and buy a house, etc.
It cracks me up that I got married at 22 (still going strong, fwiw, so it does happen occasionally). It was the perfect decision for us but we were laughing at our pictures, “who let those teenagers get married?”
Same here! I was 21, my husband was 22. Looking at the pictures I’m always like “WE WERE BABIES!” We’re coming up on 10 years now, and they’ve been a wonderful, eventful, at times dramatic 10 years. Wouldn’t change it but also always tell everyone to WAIT. I know we’re lucky to have made it through, and the other people we know who got married so young/quickly are already divorced. It helped that we waited 9 years to add a baby to our dynamic!
I’m 42, married for 15 years, with two sons. I still feel like I’m faking it as an adult.
Thanks for sharing that! I’m 30 and feel like this every day. I wonder, if this ever goes away, or we all are just children, who are growing old, and faking to be adults :)))
Engaged at 19, married at 22 here. I’m 29 now and I’ve got four kids.
Despite it all – marriage, children, school, career, my husband’s deployment when we were engaged, illness, loss, and more – I still get up in the morning sometimes and feel like a little kid playing pretend. Then I stop and settle into myself and am so thankful that this is my life. Happiness superceeds all.
Although I really wish the damn cat would let me sleep past six in the morning.
She is easily the classiest actress ever. Lovely woman.
I was married at 20, and we’re still going 13 years later. A few people thought that we were too young, and I get that being married young is not for everyone, but it’s working fine for us.
I’d be more concerned with the celebrities who marry, cheat, then divorce… repeatedly.
You said it.
Ah the original Brangelina.
Yes! Their divorce was huuuge news back in the day
I love sitting at home with my fiance and our animals, it makes me happy. Poor guy is so sick of celebrity gossip, but he knows Celebitchy is awesome!
My mother was married at 19, my aunt at 21.
I just turned 32 and even the thought of marriage still boggles my mind, I got a late start on full-time employment and I don’t feel anywhere near pulled-together enough (life-wise) to be partnered up, with all that entails. But since my mother is still married to my dad 34 years later, something in their marriage clearly worked.
I’d remove “when she was 23” from that sentence.
Khm-khm, I got married even earlier than that and it was normal just 15 years ago.
In regards to her marrying Tom Cruise, he was a hottie (still is a very attractive man) and their chemistry was through the roof (“Days of Thunder” anyone? “Far and Away”?!). Maybe he wasn’t as into his cult back than. On a side note, I still don’t know what happened with them and why they got a divorce.
Scientology got their claws back into him after he pulled away while with Nicole. Eventually he became super enmeshed again and the cult turned him against Nicole as she didn’t like them. Badda Bing Badda boom end of marriage.
I really like Nicole; she has always seemed like a kind, mature human being in a field that is not well-populated with that type.
I got married at 23 (DH was 26), and looking back, it seems crazy young. Still going strong 24 years later, but I hope my kids don’t follow in our footsteps in that regard – ideally, I’d like for them to have more life experience before making that commitment.
They both look amazing in those pictures!
Maybe she married Tom because she was 23, ie too young to know much better!?
I’ve always had a soft spot for her. She’s highly sensitive and that can be a gift and a burden. 😊
I would say 20 is too young but 23 for 1990 was the average for women because of limited choices tom wasn`t crazy then becasuse she put a stop to CO$ so she had for the most part a normal relationship until about the 10 year mark. I think she is over all a sweet person but sometimes i wonder dose she still have feeling for they did`t talk out the problems he just decide he want CO$ /penelope cruz
23 was not that young for a first time bride in the 90s. Typical age of a first marriage varies through time. Like a wave. Right now people are waiting a lot longer.
Demi Moore was married at 17. Milla Jovovich was married at 16. That’s a story.
I like Nicole, but she’s said this a zillion times already and people are sick of hearing it. She’s a star in her own right and doesn’t have to mention Cruise every time she has a movie to plug.
Don’t worry Nic…you got it right the second time. To say that Keith is just about perfect would be a massive understatement. He’s got it all…looks, brains, humor, talent, charm, humility, and a fierce protectiveness of his family.
FWIW I got married at 22, in the summer of 1992. Here we are 24 years later with two daughters (18 and 13) and we’re very happy together. Marrying young doesn’t always mean it won’t last.
I am very glad that I didn’t get married in my early 20’s. I got engaged my senior year of college at age 21 and people thought I was way too young (I was-we broke up long before the wedding, thankfully). This was back in 1993 and where I lived (the Northeast) getting married right after college was somewhat unusual. Most of my friends ended up getting married in their mid 20’s.
After my early engagement, I got cold feet about marriage in general and didn’t end up getting married until I was 32. I’m very glad I waited. Then again, I have a sister-in-law who married at 19 and she and her husband are in their mid 30’s now and doing well. Marrying young works for some people (although statistically not for most).
I find her comment ……………..eyebrow raising. Nicole lived with a much older guy , Tom Burlinson when she was still a teenager. I also believe she was co habituating with Marcus Graham until she met Cruise and didn’t return to her home with Graham. Anyhoo I do suppose 23 is young.
…yup I remember an interview with them both around Days of Thunder time…basically they both said they were hugely ambitious…and P Cruz wanted Tom to do for her HW career what he did for Nicole…but it didnt work out…bit like Katie really…that Red mag cover is ridiculous…
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but marrying Tom put her on the Hollywood radar. They may have been in love, but there is no denying the fact that she was Mrs. Tom Cruise for almost 10 years and benefitted greatly from the association. Something I think she considered before saying ‘I do’.
Aw her old face. She was so beautiful then.