Finding Love's Compass: How Nicole Kidman's Oscar Win Transformed Her Post-Tom Cruise Divorce
Nicole Kidman's Oscar triumph in 2003 for 'The Hours' led to a profound realization: she yearned for love after her divorce from Tom Cruise Reflecting on her solitary night after the win, Kidman discovered the importance of finding true affection
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Nicole Kidman‘s 2003 Oscar win wasn’t memorable for the reasons one might expect.
In Dave Karger‘s upcoming book, 50 Oscar Nights, an excerpt shared by People on January 8, Kidman revealed, "I was dealing with personal struggles while my professional life was thriving. It's just the way things go, isn't it?" At 56 years old, Kidman won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Hours. Although she tearfully accepted the award, she felt uneasy after leaving the stage. Her divorce from Tom Cruise, with whom she adopted daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995, had been finalized in August 2001 after 11 years of marriage, and she had not found love again.
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“I’m not a big party girl, so I was going to skip the Vanity Fair party, and everyone was like, ‘You’ve got to go. You’ve got to walk through the party carrying your Academy Award,’” she explained in Karger’s book, which will be released on Tuesday, January 23. “I said, ‘That just feels like gloating, and it doesn’t feel humble.’ Like, what? You can’t walk through carrying the award! That feels really inappropriate. They’re like, ‘That’s what you do.’”
Kidman followed the advice and attended the party. “So I literally walked in, carried it around, was completely overwhelmed, emotional, shaking and I didn’t enjoy it,” she remembered. “I was almost apologetic, which is so stupid. I wish I could have enjoyed it more.”
Nicole Kidman, who won the Best Actress Oscar for "The Hours," opted to leave the party and head back to her room at The Beverly Hills Hotel to enjoy some takeout. "I sat on the hotel floor with my family, eating French fries and a burger before going to bed," Kidman recounted. "That's when it struck me. I thought to myself, 'I need to find love; I need love in my life.' This is the time when you're supposed to think, 'This is ours.'"
After re-entering the dating scene, romance quickly found Kidman. She became involved with Lenny Kravitz and they were briefly engaged. However, it was not until 2005 that she found true love in Keith Urban, whom she married in June 2006. They have since welcomed two daughters: Sunday Rose, now 15, and Faith, now 13.
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Kidman discussed her marriage to Cruise, noting that she doesn't mind the public interest in it. "I was young. I think I offered it up? Maybe I've gotten a bit more trepidatious, but I'm always trying to be as open as possible," she said. "I just prefer to live in the world that way." She added, "I much prefer a warm approach rather than a prickly shutdown approach." She mentioned that her husband Keith once asked her, 'How's your heart?' And she responded, 'Open.'
