Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, now 59, told British Vogue she married Tom Cruise knowing it could cost her career, and said she didn't care because she was in love.
Kidman laid out the trade-off in blunt terms. She was 23 years old, already building a name in Hollywood, and chose marriage to one of the biggest movie stars on the planet over the advice of anyone who warned her she'd be overshadowed. Thirty-five years later, in a newly published British Vogue interview, she said the calculation was simple, and she'd make it again.
Page Six reported on the interview, in which Kidman described falling for Cruise on the set of "Days of Thunder" and marrying him on Christmas Eve 1990. She was 22 when they met. By 23, she was his wife, and, in the eyes of the industry, his accessory.
"I don't care. I'm in love. I want to be married."
That was Kidman's answer to anyone who questioned the decision. She told British Vogue that after the wedding, the label stuck fast.
"Then, I was his 'wife' and they were like, 'See, we told you.' I'm like, 'So what? I wasn't meant to marry the man I love? Of course I'll throw my career away. I don't care.'"
The couple adopted daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995. The marriage lasted until 2001, when they divorced. Kidman has previously described herself as "so impulsive and naive" about marrying so young.
After the split, Kidman channeled the fallout into her craft. She starred in "Moulin Rouge!" and built the career that would eventually earn her an Academy Award. But she didn't pretend the personal wreckage was painless.
In a 2012 interview with DuJour, she put it starkly:
"I was reeling with Tom. I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him."
Three years later, at the 2015 Women in the World summit, she described using acting as an escape hatch.
"I wasn't able to handle the reality of my life. 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."
Kidman married country singer Keith Urban in 2006 after what she described as a quick engagement. They welcomed daughter Sunday Rose in 2008 and daughter Faith Margaret in 2010. The marriage lasted nearly two decades before the couple separated last year. Their divorce was finalized in January.
When British Vogue asked whether her second divorce felt different from the first, Kidman pushed back on the premise. She said the two experiences had nothing in common.
"It's all new. Every time!"
She also addressed the level of public scrutiny that has followed her personal life since her early twenties, saying she has grown accustomed to it, even if she finds the comfort odd.
"Strangely enough, I feel comfortable. Is that weird? That's so weird. But you have to remember literally, because of who I married at such a young age, I was thrust into it since I was 22."
Kidman, now single after two high-profile marriages, confirmed in the interview that she is "embracing love." She is rumored to be dating private equity investor Michael Reinstein, though she did not confirm the relationship by name. She acknowledged that her current chapter is one she did not plan for.
"You make all these plans and you have all these ideas of what it's all going to be like and then it's... not. You have to adjust. You adapt."
Kidman's career long ago outgrew the "Tom Cruise's wife" label. The star of "Big Little Lies," "Eyes Wide Shut," and "Moulin Rouge!" has built a body of work that stands on its own. And her public profile shows no signs of fading. AP News reported that Kidman will co-chair the next Met Gala alongside Beyoncé, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour on May 4, 2026. The event is tied to the Costume Institute's "Costume Art" exhibit, which will open in a newly inaugurated 12,000-square-foot gallery space at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Tom Cruise, now 64, has not publicly commented on the interview.
Kidman's candor about choosing love over career at 23 is a reminder that some decisions only make sense to the person making them, and that the people who said she was making a mistake were wrong about the career, even if the marriage didn't last.
