She was married to Scientologist Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001.
And now, Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, 51, has revealed the real reason why she has stopped discussing her movie star ex-husband.
Speaking in the Observer magazine, the Hollywood star said the decision was made out of ‘respect’ for her current husband, Keith Urban, 51.
‘It’s nice to be able to say that’: Actress Nicole Kidman, 51, (above) has revealed the real reason she has stopped speaking publicly about ex-husband Tom Cruise. Couple pictured in the 90s
While doing the promotional rounds for her new film, Boy Erased, Nicole was asked about any parallels between being a preacher’s wife, and her time as Tom’s wife.
Explaining her personal decision to stop talking about the Mission Impossible star, Nicole said that time in her life had finished.
‘I have a husband now,’ she reportedly told the publication, ‘I feel out of respect for him I don’t want to talk about that. It’s been 20 years.’
‘I feel out of respect for him I don’t want to talk about that. It’s been 20 years’: Nicole (above) said she didn’t want to speak about her former marriage out of respect for Keith (above)
She continued: ‘I have come to the point where I can say: ‘I am not going to keep discussing my ex’ It’s nice for me to be able to say that.’
Nicole and Tom were one of the most high-profile power couples in Hollywood in the 1990s, when the pair fell in love on the set of film Days of Thunder.
The former couple share two adopted children, son Connor, 23, and daughter Bella, 25, but has had little public contact since the split.
Family: The Hours actress has been married to country superstar Keith since 2006. The couple share two daughters Sunday Rose, 10, and Faith Margaret, 7, (above) in March
Nicole has remained silent for a number of years on her former husband, with her telling New York magazine in October she was ‘reluctant’ to speak about him.
‘Being married to Tom Cruise at 22 is something I’m always reluctant to talk about, because I’m married now to the man who is my great love, and it almost feels disrespectful,’ Kidman said.
Earlier this month, Nicole did speak about her famous marriage in light of the #MeToo movement.
‘it’s interesting that the power of another man gives you respect,’ Nicole did speak about her marriage to movie star Tom in light of the #MeToo movement. Pictured this month, in London
Speaking to WHO magazine this month, the actress said being married to movie star Tom helped her to avoid being sexually harassed.
‘I don’t know why the culture is set up like that and we aren’t just protected anyway, but it’s interesting that the power of another man gives you respect,’ she said.
In a recent interview with The Today Show in the US, Nicole explained that her marriage afforded her a lifestyle that largely kept her away from sexual predators.
‘Because I was married at 23 years old, I wasn’t going to parties or I wasn’t going out a lot. I was pretty much at home,’ she said.
‘I had my first child at 25 and I was a married, I was in a family. So my sense of being in the world was I was working, or I was at home.’
Power couple: Nicole (left) recently claimed that being married to an ‘extremely powerful man’ like Tom Cruise (right) helped keep her from being sexually harassed in Hollywood in the 1990s