Nicole Kidman was willing to throw ‘career away’ after marrying Tom Cruise at 23
Nicole Kidman admitted she prioritized her relationship with Tom Cruise over her career when the exes got married over 35 years ago.
“Yeah, I got married so young,” Kidman told British Vogue in an interview published Thursday, recalling that she “suddenly was 23 years old” with a “huge movie star husband.”
But Kidman, now 59, said that “just seemed completely natural” at the time.
“We just fell madly in love and it was that simple,” she explained of the former couple. “I remember people saying to me, ‘OK, well this is really going to affect your career.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care. I’m in love. I want to be married.’”
The Oscar winner continued, “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.’”
Kidman and Cruise, 64, met on the set of “Days of Thunder” and got married a year later on Christmas Eve in 1990. They got divorced in 2001.
The “Eyes Wide Shut” co-stars adopted daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995.
Kidman previously explained that she was “so impulsive and naive” when she got married to Cruise in her early 20s.
“I was reeling with Tom. I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him,” she said in a 2012 interview with DuJour.
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.”
Kidman found love again with Keith Urban, whom she married in 2006 after a quick engagement. They welcomed daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
The actress and the country singer separated last year after nearly two decades of marriage. They finalized their divorce in January.
In her British Vogue interview, Kidman compared her two divorces, admitting that things aren’t easier the second time around.
“It’s all new,” she shared. “Every time!”
Kidman also said she’s more accustomed to the attention on her personal life now than when she was with Cruise.
“Strangely enough, I feel comfortable. Is that weird? That’s so weird,” she told the outlet. “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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Big Little Lies” star noted that she “didn’t expect” her latest life twist, “but this is what it is now.”
“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,” she said.
Kidman, who is rumored to be dating private equity investor Michael Reinstein, also confirmed she’s “embracing love” in this chapter of her life.
