Kidman hoping for child at 50

AUSTRALIA: Nicole Kidman has spoken of her desire to have another child in the year she celebrates her 50th birthday.

The actress, who has four children, said that she had suffered several ‘‘heartbreaks’’ during her attempts to conceive.

She said that her two oldest children, Isabella, 25, and Connor, 21, who were adopted during her marriage to Tom Cruise, were now adults and that she would welcome a new baby with open arms.

Kidman conceived Sunday Rose, 8, naturally and had Faith, 6, through a surrogate - both with Keith Urban, a country music singer she married in 2006.

She said that children were the ‘‘joy of her life’’, telling Event magazine: ‘‘In everything that has happened in my life, being a mother has been the overriding thing that has changed everything and made it better.

‘‘I still have the faintest hope that something may happen to me this year. Keith and I would love to have more babies. My grandmother gave birth to my mother at 49.’’

Kidman, who received a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actress in her latest film, Lion, spoke of her difficulty in conceiving.

She said: ‘‘You go through heartbreak again and again and then you start to tell yourself it might never happen. I honestly never believed I would actually give birth to a child, then at 41 I became a mother.

‘‘After so many years of trying, it was so against the odds. We went through a surrogacy with my second daughter because we wanted another child so much that it hurt.

‘‘I felt my chances of conceiving again were slimmer and slimmer. And then we got Faith.’’

Of her two oldest children, she said: ‘‘They are still a part of my life and my heart but they are adults now and they have their own lives and I’m incredibly protective

"In everything that has happened in my life, being a mother has been the overriding thing that has changed everything and made it better." Nicole Kidman

about their privacy. Your children are always your children. You are a mother for life.’’

Of her second husband, Kidman said: ‘‘When I met Keith, the connection between us was deep, there was a loneliness in both of us. ‘‘It doesn’t matter how famous you are - you can still feel loneliness and we saw that in each other. We got engaged after a month, and that was a leap of faith for both of us.’’

Four months after marrying, Urban sought treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. Kidman said this ‘‘showed his commitment to a new life’’. - The Times