EXCLUSIVE: STAR ON BEING A MUM, Queen of Cannes is happiest at home Nicole Kidman
IF the super-chic Cannes Film Festival were to pick a queen there would be only one contender.
Elegant actress Nicole Kidman will reign over this year’s 12-day celebration of cinema and TV on the French Riviera.
She is plugging three films and a TV series which showcase her amazing acting versatility.
Two of the films, American Civil War drama The Beguiled and horror drama The Killing of a Sacred Deer, are competing for Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or.
With countless roles under her belt over 34 years in the business and a marriage to superstar Tom Cruise, the Oscar winner should be right at home rubbing shoulders with cinema’s great and good.
Manic
So it is surprising to learn she would be even happier with her country rock star husband Keith Urban and their kids in Nashville.
In fact, Nicole is looking forward to celebrating her 50th birthday next month curled up under the covers in her family home and ordering takeaways.
Nicole credits Keith, 49, and daughters Sunday Rose, nine, and Faith, six, with keeping her grounded in the manic and topsyturvy world of showbiz.
When Nicole married Aussie singer Keith in 2005 it sounded like the plot of a romcom, except it seemed too far-fetched.
The couple barely knew each other yet within weeks were married. Nicole had a gut feeling it was the right thing to do.
She said: “I sort of stumbled into Keith and in my spontaneous way got married very quickly.
“We got to know each other when we were married – a very new way to live in the 2000s.
“We navigated things but I wanted that and I wanted a partner to share my life with.
“I was willing to compromise, and change and that meant moving to a different place.” Nicole went to Nashville and soon after fulfilled her dream of having more children.
She had two adopted kids – Conor and Isabelle – from her 11-year marriage to Cruise and is still an active stepmum.
But she admitted she wanted a baby with Keith the moment they met. She said: “He was like: ‘No,’ and I got lucky, I got to have a child when I was 41.”
This year Nicole was Oscar nominated for her role as an adoptive mother of an Indian child in Lion.
The movie brought back many emotional memories for the star who gave birth to Sunday Rose in 2008 and had Faith via ia a surrogate mother two years later. ter.
She said: “The lovee I felt for our surrogate was enormous.ormous. She came into our lives and said she’d help us have a second nd child.
“I’m a mother who’s experienced motherhood throughhrough many different avenues now. ow.
“I get emotional talking about it, I’m so grateful to her. I’ve had a very, very rollercoasteraster ride with fertility, I just have and it’s never been easy for me.
Dazzlingng
“I now have twowo gorgeous adopted children andd two biological children. I can’t believe that’s what’s happened in my life.”
Nicole has ensuredred her four children are a close family.
She said: “You willll die for your children and you feel eel that as a parent. People talk k about this unconditional love but until you feel it you can’t quite te grasp it.”
Nicole said hard work, desire and landing the right t roles have