Nicole says Tom Cruise shielded her from abuse

Nicole Kidman got “protection” from her marriage to Tom Cruise in the 1990s, she says — protection from the sexual harassment experienced by many of her Hollywood peers.

The Big Little Lies actress spoke up about her 1990 marriage to Cruise at age 22 in a Women and Power column written for New York magazine’s the Cut. Their 11 years together isn’t something she likes to talk about publicly, she said, out of respect for her marriage now to musician Keith Urban.

“I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up,” Kidman said.

The marriage “definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection,” she said.