Nicole Kidman broke her public silence on the end of her 19-year marriage to Keith Urban in a new British Vogue interview, describing a period of deep vulnerability and a deliberate choice to keep moving forward.
The 59-year-old actress, whose divorce was finalized on January 6 after she filed on September 30 citing irreconcilable differences, told the magazine she had to abandon the life she had mapped out and accept a future she called "completely unknown to me right now." The interview appears in British Vogue's September issue, available on newsstands and digitally starting Thursday, August 20.
Kidman did not sugarcoat the emotional toll. She described a stretch of fear and exposure before arriving at a conscious decision about how to handle it.
As the Daily Mail reported, Kidman told British Vogue:
"There was a point where I was very fearful and deeply vulnerable, which is exposing. And then at the same time I'm going, 'Well, I can either really not confront it and just curl up, or I can just go forward with an enormous amount of hope'."
That framing, confront or collapse, ran through the entire interview. Kidman acknowledged that the split upended expectations she had carried for nearly two decades.
"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. The future, it's completely unknown to me right now."
The couple had reportedly been living separately since last summer. Kidman filed the paperwork on September 30, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on January 6, when the two reached a settlement agreement. Kidman was reportedly named primary parent to their two daughters, Sunday, 18, and Faith, 15.
She did not discuss the settlement terms in the interview but spoke at length about her children and the priority they now hold in her life. Kidman has previously spoken about flying home to her daughters the moment filming wraps, and the Vogue conversation reinforced that focus.
"It's an extraordinary purpose. Everything else is not important. These kids now, that's what we drop everything for."
Kidman also described each daughter's personality in specific terms. She called Sunday "so her own creature," noting her 18-year-old has "a strong sense of identity" and a visual, European-influenced style. Sunday takes photographs and makes films, Kidman said.
Faith, the younger daughter, recently attended what Kidman called "the Vogue School" and loved it. Kidman described Faith's aesthetic as having what she called the "Bessette style", a reference she did not elaborate on. "They're both very different though they look very similar," she said.
The interview landed against a backdrop of tabloid attention over Kidman's personal life. She was first linked romantically last month with Michael Reinstein, a 54-year-old private equity executive who founded and chairs Regent, a Beverly Hills-based firm now 13 years old.
The two were first seen together on a balcony at the Belmond Splendido hotel in Portofino, Italy. More recently, Kidman was photographed with Reinstein in Los Angeles after flying in from New York. He was behind the wheel of a Ferrari valued at roughly £250,000. The relationship between Kidman and Urban following the divorce has drawn public attention from multiple angles, Keith Urban reportedly struggled when the new romance first surfaced.
Neither Kidman nor Reinstein has publicly confirmed the nature of their relationship. The Daily Mail described them as "linked romantically" but offered no on-the-record statement from either party.
An unnamed source described as close to Kidman told the Daily Mail:
"After everything she went through with Keith, she deserves to find happiness. She never thought her marriage wouldn't work out, and she tried as best as she could to keep her family intact. Her daughters are her best friends, and she seems really content in her life."
Separate reporting indicated that Urban was reportedly relieved Kidman had found companionship, having carried guilt over the end of the marriage.
What stood out in the British Vogue interview was what Kidman chose not to say. She did not assign blame. She did not discuss Urban's conduct or the reasons behind the separation beyond the legal language in the filing. She spoke entirely in terms of her own emotional processing and the choices ahead of her.
Kidman told the magazine she has always wanted "to live a well-examined life" and described what that means now.
"Trying things, making mistakes, failing, getting back up, moving on, embracing love, staying open, keeping the heart open and the possibilities."
She also said she still approaches situations intellectually but does not want to be "ruled by my head." That tension, between control and vulnerability, ran through the conversation. Kidman has reflected publicly before on the role sacrifice plays in her personal life, once saying she would have given up her career to marry Tom Cruise at 23.
In addition to Sunday and Faith, Kidman is mother to Isabella, 34, and Connor, 31, whom she adopted during her marriage to Cruise. The Vogue interview mentioned them as part of her family but did not discuss them in detail.
Kidman also publicly acknowledged Urban for the first time since the divorce in a Father's Day post earlier this year, a small gesture that suggested the two are navigating the aftermath with some measure of grace.
At 59, after two high-profile marriages and a career spanning decades, Kidman is making a public case for starting over without pretending the wreckage doesn't exist. In a culture that rewards grievance and recrimination, choosing hope over bitterness is its own quiet act of defiance.
