An interview of Nicole Kidman admitting divorce is a ‘nightmare and hard’ has been unearthed in light of her split from Keith Urban.
The pair have dominated headlines since news of their break-up emerged this week, along with a wave of speculation about what went wrong between them.
The actress, 58, was pictured for the first time on Wednesday since she filed for divorce to end their 19-year marriage.
Despite keeping a brave face on the outing with her sister Antonia, Nicole confessed her true feelings about divorce two decades ago in an emotional interview with Oprah Winfrey, at the time of her highly publicised separation from ex-husband Tom Cruise.
As reported in ABC News, she said: ‘I think that divorce is hard for anyone. It’s a nightmare, it just is, and you can pretend you’re fine. And days you’re great [and] days you’re not great.’
The Aussie actress was previously married to Cruise, 63, for 11 years from 1990 to 2001 . They adopted two children together: Isabella, 32, and Connor, 30.
Nicole also confessed in the intimate conversation, back in 2001, that she thought she would always be married.
On Monday came news that Keith had moved out of the Nashville family home and into nearby accommodation, amid claims that he had grown unhappy at the ‘lack of intimacy’ in their marriage.
Within 24 hours, however, she had filed for divorce, in Davidson County, Tennessee, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’.
A source claimed to the Daily Mail that Keith, 57, has already moved on with a younger woman in the music industry.
A music industry source told the Daily Mail on Tuesday: ‘The rumor is that he’s with a younger woman in the business. It’s all everyone is talking about.’
The Daily Mail contacted representatives for Nicole and Keith for comment and has yet to hear back.
The former couple share daughters Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14.
For her part, Nicole has been devoted to Keith ever since they first met in 2005.
Despite Keith then ignoring her for four months, they eventually got together and swiftly married in June 2006.
Almost immediately there was trouble. In October 2006, Keith checked into a Palm Springs rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction.
On Christmas Eve that year, a model named Amanda Wyatt claimed to have had an affair with him in the run-up to his wedding. He firmly denied the allegation at the time.
‘If it turns out to be true that Keith is involved with another woman, it will feel like the biggest humiliation for Nic,’ an insider told the Daily Mail.
‘She does everything she can to keep herself looking young and in shape. Not only for screen roles but also for Keith. She used to ask him if she’s still hot and, of course, he’d always tell her she was. But he seemed to be growing tired of her looking for reassurance.’
In a brutal move, Keith has apparently repurposed an old love song he wrote about Nicole to include the name of his 25-year-old guitarist Maggie Baugh.
At a recent concert, he switched up the original lyric from ‘When they’re tryna get to you, baby I’ll be the fighter’ to ‘When they’re tryna get to you, Maggie I’ll be your guitar player.’
Maggie shared the video to Instagram on Sunday – 24 hours before news of the separation broke – and wrote: ‘Did he just say that.’
With rumors of another woman ferociously circulating, fans have predictably jumped on Maggie, flooding her social media with claims she is a ‘homewrecker’.
Maggie has yet to address the speculation, so too has Keith, but aside from the lyric there is nothing to suggest Maggie is romantically involved with him – or that she is the reason for his divorce.
A friend of Keith’s told the Daily Mail: ‘He isn’t talking about whether he’s dating anyone else or going to date anyone else, but he’s saying that he’s going to be fine and not to worry about him getting self-destructive. He’s OK.’
In other words, no need to worry about a relapse into addiction.
Keith’s focus, the friend says, remains solely on co-parenting his daughters.
‘Keith’s the type who looks to escape his thoughts when things go sideways,’ said the friend. ‘I don’t want him to look for it in a bottle. But he is saying he’s fine, that everything’s OK, but he’s not going to elaborate any more than that.
‘He’s not going to boohoo to people about his failed marriage. He’s worried about the kids and how they’re going to cope being from a broken home, but he promises he’s going to stay on the wagon for their sake. I’d like to believe that’s the truth.’
