The Moment Nicole Kidman Knew She Needed To Move On From Her Tom Cruise Split

We weren't the only ones caught off guard when Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise split up in 2001. While speaking to DuJour, Kidman acknowledged that she believed they were living an idealistic life just a year before Cruise filed for divorce. The Aussie actor revealed that they had almost grown to become codependent on each other, which made their breakup even more devastating. "It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system," she shared. 

And that healing might've taken longer if Kidman hadn't been through a depressing night at the 2003 Oscars following her first win. But before all the heartbreak, Cruise brought a lot of happiness into Kidman's life. The couple first met around 1989 while filming "Days of Thunder," both later admitting that they felt instantly drawn to each other. That attraction only grew, and the couple quickly locked things down in December 1990, when Kidman was about 23. 

In a 2002 Vanity Fair interview, the "Moulin Rouge" star reminisced about how she felt at the time: "He basically swept me off my feet. I fell madly, passionately in love. And as happens when you fall in love, my whole plan in terms of what I wanted for my life — I was like, 'Forget it. This is it.'" The actors adopted their daughter, Jane, in 1992 followed by their son, Anthony, in 1995. Given how much Kidman had riding on the marriage, it makes perfect sense that it took her nearly three years to find the courage to move on. 

In 2003, Nicole Kidman bagged the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in "The Hours." When author Dave Karger spoke to the actor for his book "50 Oscar Nights," Kidman confessed that she was internally falling apart back then because her divorce from Tom Cruise was finalized around the same time. The Aussie native's sadness coupled with her natural introversion made Kidman want to go straight back to her hotel room, but people urged her to attend a Vanity Fair Oscars party while proudly showing off her trophy. 

She didn't feel much better doing that, so Kidman ultimately called it a night and ordered takeout, recalling, "I sat on the floor of the hotel eating French fries and a burger with my family and went to bed," adding, "That's when it hit me. I went, I need to find my love; I need a love in my life. Because this is supposed to be when you go, 'This is ours,'" (via People). Since the "Big Little Lies" star hadn't found her match by then, she went to sleep all alone before the clock even struck 12. 

Kidman vowed that if she was ever honored with an Oscar again, the actor would enjoy a proper, day-long celebration. However, award shows weren't exactly fun for Kidman during her marriage to Cruise. In an Easy Living interview (via Us Weekly), she remembered feeling as though she didn't belong with the other actors and was only there to be a pretty but silent cheerleader for Cruise.

Nicole Kidman's wish of finding true love came true when she met Keith Urban at the G'day USA Gala in 2005, just two years after her Oscar-night epiphany. During a 2017 appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Kidman noted that although she gave Urban her number during their first meeting, she didn't actually hear from him for months. But, after that first call, the "Eyes Wide Shut" star wasted no time in falling head over heels in love. 

As Kidman told People in 2017, she realized that she would happily spend the rest of her life with the "One Too Many" singer during the early hours of her birthday in 2005. Kidman confirmed their engagement to People in May 2006, and their nuptials took place in Sydney the following June. Urban and Kidman have two children together, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, who was born via surrogacy. Although the celebrity couple understandably wishes their paths had crossed sooner, Urban believes fate brought them together at the perfect time. 

As he asserted in a 2012 interview with Now to Love, "We ask ourselves if we would like to have met each other in our 20s, so we could have had more time together, but the trade-off may have been that we wouldn't have had the same amount of life experience to bring together and really make something of substance." Although there are several odd things about Urban and Kidman's marriage, it's clear that these two were meant to be.