KEITH’S BIG LIE

As reports of trouble continue to plague his marriage to Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban is caught with a mystery woman 32 IN TOUCH AUGUST 27, 2018

Keith Urban should have just kept his mouth shut. When a woman who didn’t recognize the singer offered to pick up his tab at a Medford, N. J., convenience store on Aug. 3 when he was short on cash, he confessed who he was. “I didn’t believe him [at first]. I asked where Nicole [Kidman] was and who was the lady [with him],” recounted retired schoolteacher Ruth Reed, who eventually took a photo with the country superstar. “He told me it was his sister.”

One problem: Keith doesn’t have a sister. Though Wawa store employees confirm to In Touch that the 50-year-old was there with another woman, it’s unclear who she actually was — and his lie could have a devastating effect on his already-shaky marriage to Nicole, 51. “Lack of trust has always been a major factor in their marriage,” a source tells In Touch. “If Nicole found out Keith lied to her about another woman, she’d be furious.”

Nicole has worked hard in recent months to try to make their marriage stronger. “They’ve had their issues,” says the source. The pair

have long struggled to deal with Keith’s addiction problems — he spent time in rehab not long after they wed in 2006 — and Nicole’s “constant fear” that he might cheat on her, “which makes him feel constantly smothered and suffocated,” adds the source. As In Touch previously reported, Keith and Nicole (who are parents to Sunday, 10, and Faith, 7) even had a fiveday “emergency stay” at Marriage Quest, a private counseling retreat in Vermont, in the months before their 12th anniversary in June.

Since then, they’ve barely managed to keep up appearances. “Nicole feels like she constantly has to go overboard defending their marriage,” the source says of the actress, who often engages in excessive PDA with her husband, gushes about him in interviews and posts loving photos on Instagram. The pair have been living separate lives this summer as she films Big Little Lies in California while he’s been on his Graffiti U World Tour. “Their marriage has been slowly crumbling for a long time,” adds the source, “and she’s been struggling to hold it together.”

His statement that he was with his sister at the Wawa certainly won’t help. “It seemed he tripped up by saying it was his sister when he doesn’t have a sister,” says the source. “A scandal like this is the last thing their marriage needs right now.” ◼