Already have an account?
Get back to the

Nicole Kidman: Tom Cruise and I Were Like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, But He Wasn’t My “Great Love”

Nicole Kidman on the December cover of Vanity Fair
Nicole Kidman says her Tom Cruise romance was like Brangelina; she also says Cruise wasn't her "Great love"

It’s a more-than-apt comparison. Recalling her fabled first marriage to Tom Cruise — and the intense level of fame and media scrutiny they endured together — Nicole Kidman reveals in the December issue of Vanity Fair that she to another mega-boldfaced Hollywood couple: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. “There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you,” says Kidman, 46. She and Cruise, 51, split in 2001 after 11 years of marriage and two adopted kids together (Bella, 20, and Connor, 18).

Related: PHOTOS: Tom and Nicole, the way they were

“And there is only one other person that’s going through it,” the Grace of Monaco star continues. “So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that–because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you.”

nicole and tom
Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman during “Eyes Wide Shut” Premiere in Los Angeles, California

Related: PHOTOS: How Bella and Connor have grown up

Despite that intensity, however, Kidman admits to Vanity Fair that something was missing. Marrying Cruise when she was just 23 (“I was so young,” she says), the Australian beauty says she didn’t feel at the time that she’d found her “great love” — that’s her second husband, country singer Keith Urban.

brange
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend ‘WORLD WAR Z’ Germany Premiere at Sony Centre on June 4, 2013 in Berlin, Germany.

“With no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now,” she says of the singer, 46. “And I really did not know if that was going to happen. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it for a while, because I didn’t want to jump from one relationship to another. I had a lot of time alone, which was really, really good, because I was a child, really, when I got married [to Cruise]. And I needed to grow up.”

Related: HOTOS: See Nicole Kidman's face change over the years

Indeed, as the Cruise marriage crumbled (the Top Gun star famously blindsided Kidman when he filed his divorce papers), Kidman reveals she was at such a “low point” that she could relate to suicidal author Virginia Woolf, whom she played to Oscar-winning effect in The Hours. “Walking into the river with those stones in my pockets–I chose life,” she says of filming one particular scene. “At the time, I was at a low point, and by playing her, it put me into a place of appreciating life.”

Related: PHOTOS: How Katie Holmes chaged during her Tom Cruise marriage

Calling her life in Nashville, Tenn. with Urban and their two young daughters Sunday and Faith “very, very peaceful,” Kidman says she doesn’t miss living in Hollywood itself.

“There’s an enormous amount you have to give up if you want to have a family. You can have a certain career, but you can’t be living in Hollywood, [where] absolutely everything, everything revolves around it,” she reveals. “That wasn’t my choice. I’d rather revolve around somebody else’s career and then still find my own.”

In this article

Got a Tip form close button
Got a tip for US?
We're All Ears for Celebrity Buzz!