When it comes to beloved Australian couples, you will be hard-pressed to find one more adored than Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
Married for almost 20 years, the actor and musician proves that, when you find the right one, love can withstand anything.
“I’m so lucky that I have Keith who’s just my love, my deep, deep love,” Nicole PEOPLE in 2024.
Nicole and Keith, both 56, met back in 2005 in the most Australian of circumstances, at a G’Day USA gala – an Aussie diplomacy program in the United States.
For Nicole, the attraction was instant. Speaking to American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres back in 2017, the actress confessed she was smitten with her fellow Aussie from the get-go.
“I remember thinking, I had such a crush on him, and he wasn’t interested in me. He didn’t call me for months”.
Keith, however, justified his hesitation to reach out to the Academy Award winner on the talk show Interview back in 2018, explaining he was simply too nervous.
“Somebody had given me her number and I had it in my pocket for a while. I kept looking at it thinking, ‘If I call this number, she’s going to answer. I don’t know what (to) say'”.
When honouring his wife when she was given the AFI Life Achievement Award in April 2024, the country singer shed new light on the anxiety he felt pursuing Nicole romantically, describing her in his speech as a “real-life princess”.
“I was trying to play it cool, but inside I felt like I’d snuck into the royal ball simply because Nic had such an otherworldly aura about her,” he said.
“And despite all of that, I did manage to get her phone number on a tiny piece of paper. I was scared. I was nervous to call her. I did, as you probably figured out, pluck up the courage to finally call her.”
He also reflected upon the early days of their marriage when he was in rehab, and thanked Nicole for her endless support, and for “choosing love.”
“Nic pushed through every negative voice and here we are tonight 18 years later. Her capacity to love is like no one I’ve ever met.”
The Blue Ain’t Your Color singer also told Interview that, at the time he met his future wife, he “wasn’t in a healthy place” and wasn’t confident that the actress would see anything in him. However, the musician eventually picked up the phone. And he’s so glad he did.
“At some point, I plucked up the courage to call those numbers and she answered, and we started talking and we talked and talked and talked and talked and it was effortless.”
The two fell for each other FAST.
“It was my [38th] birthday, and he stood outside with gardenias at 5 am on my stoop in New York,” Nicole told PEOPLE in 2019. “That is when I went, ‘This is the man I hope I get to marry.'”
After that, their romance was a whirlwind, with the performers tying the knot a year later on June 25, 2006, in Manly. The ceremony hosted a lot of famous faces including Australia’s sweetheart Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts, Crowded House’s Neil Finn, and more.
While the newlyweds should have been caught up in a honeymoon love haze, things weren’t that easy.
Having already completed two stays in rehab, Keith went back into treatment again after his and Nicole’s wedding.
“I caused the implosion of my fresh marriage,” Keith told Rolling Stone in 2016. “It survived, but it’s a miracle it did. I was spiritually awoken with her. I use the expression ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction.”
Two years after their wedding, in July 2008, Nicole and Keith welcomed their first child, Sunday Rose, into the world.
Nicole already shared two adoptive kids, Isabella and Conner, with her ex-husband Tom Cruise.
Soon after Sunday was born, Nicole jokingly lamented that the newborn bore a striking resemblance to Keith rather than herself.
Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nicole showed viewers a picture of her new baby, saying, “I didn’t even get a look in. I think she’s got my fair skin and that’s about it”.
Three years later, the celebrity couple welcomed their second child, Faith Margaret, on December 29, 2011, via surrogate.
“Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret,” the couple said in a statement. “No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive through this process, in particular our gestational carrier.”
Four years after the couple welcomed Faith into their family, Nicole candidly confessed to Vogue that she wished she and the musician could have had more kids.
“I wish I could have met him much earlier and had way more children with him,” the now-56-year-old told the publication. “But I didn’t. I mean, if I could have had two more children with him, that would have been just glorious. But, as Keith says, ‘The wanting mind, Nicole. Shut it down.'”
Regardless, she continues to share her gratitude for her family life with frequent dedications to her husband on Instagram.
More recently, she shared an adorable throwback snap with the caption, “Happy Father’s Day to the coolest dad there is! You are so loved by all of us! Your girls ❤️.”
While Nicole and Keith are as happy as ever, there was a time when we could have been looking at an entirely different celebrity couple all together. Back in 2015, the Bombshell actress appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show to drop… well, a bombshell.
WATCH NOW: Nicole Kidman reveals she almost dated Jimmy Fallon. Article continues after video.
As Jimmy recalled his and Nicole’s first meeting, Nicole shocked viewers, not to mention Jimmy, when she confessed that she had quite a crush on the talk show host.
Needless to say, the 49-year-old was flummoxed by the revelation, claiming he was clueless about her intentions.
Later, in July 2023, Nicole took part in a rare interview with Stellar’s Something to Talk About podcast, giving fans a rare insight into her almost two-decade-long marriage.
“What makes people vibe and be able to be together year after year? No one has the secret. It’s so idiosyncratic. It’s pairing, it’s luck, there’s chemistry, of course, and then there’s just being able to flow together,” she said.
“But I wouldn’t reveal how we sleep in the bed….It’s not so glamorous. It’s very serious business, is all I’ll say. And we never text each other, can you believe that?”
“We started out that way – I was like, ‘If you want to get a hold of me, call me.’ I wasn’t really a texter,” the Expats star added.
“I think he tried texting me a few times and I never texted back. Then it was like, this is quite nice. If you really want to get a hold of me, you have to call me. Everyone else we text with. That’s just the one thing we don’t do.”
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