While promoting her new film Grace of Monaco, Nicole Kidman gave Australian magazine Women’s Weekly a rare glimpse into her relationship with her oldest children Connor and Isabella Cruise.
“They are generous, kind and hardworking,” she told the magazine. “And these are traits that I love to see in my children.”
Kidman adopted the pair with ex-husband Tom Cruise in 1990, but after they divorced in 2001, both children decided to live with their father. Though they don’t see each other often due to location (Connor and Bella live in Los Angeles and Kidman spends most of her time in either Australia or Nashville with current husband Keith Urban), the Oscar winner had nothing but love for her two children.
“They live with Tom, which was their choice,” Kidman admitted to Hello! magazine in 2010. “I’d love them to live with us, but what can you do?”
Connor, 19, is an aspiring DJ, and Bella, 21, is a budding artist. They haven’t been photographed with their mother since 2007. Both are Scientologists, and Kidman has supported their decision in the past.
“I’ve chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology,” the Moulin Rogue! star told Vanity Fair in 2013. “I have two children who are Scientologists—Connor and Isabella—and I utterly respect their beliefs.”
She recently has spoken out about choosing family over her career, and reiterated the sentiment to Women’s Weekly.
“If it were the choice between my family and Keith, and my career, I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid,” she said. “The most important things to me are the love of our relationship and my children. At this stage of my life, and with time being so precious, the joy I get from us as a family outweighs any joy in any other area of my life, by far.”
For now, she remains dedicated to her craft, even after her film Grace of Monaco was poorly received at the Cannes Film Festival. She admitted to being anxious to play iconic princess Grace Kelly, especially after pal Naomi Watts‘ portrayal of the late Princess Diana was hit by harsh criticism.
“Naomi makes her own choices and I make mine. We didn’t plan on making princess movies at the same time,” she said of her longtime friend and former Flirting costar. “However, with Grace, there’s an entire generation that knows she was an amazing woman and a princess but perhaps don’t really know much more and I hope this film will fill in some of those blanks.”