Some would name Nicole Kidman as one of Hollywood’s finest actresses, but she has another role she holds even closer to her heart – that of being a mother.
The Australian-born Big Little Lies star rarely speaks about her two children with husband Keith Urban, Faith Margaret, eight, and Sunday Rose, 10, and two grown adopted children, Connor and Bella, with former husband Tom Cruise, but in a revealing interview with Vanity Fair she has shared insights into her bond with all four.
Perhaps most surprisingly, we learn that Nicole Kidman has a strong faith, and takes her two younger daughters to church regularly with husband Keith.
“That’s how we are raising our children,” Nicole explains. “Keith has his own beliefs but he comes, too. I had a very Catholic grandmother, and I was raised praying, so that had massive impact. I wouldn’t say it’s absolutism, there’s constant questioning – I’m a willful, feisty girl. For me it’s very important that I don’t have judgment. My dad would always say, ‘Tolerance is the most important thing.'”
Nicole’s children with Tom Cruise are both adults now. Son Connor is in the music industry and living in Miami. Daughter, Bella, is married and lives near London. She recently launched the T-shirt line BKC ((Bella Kidman Cruise).
Faith and Sunday are both into music, to the delight of their parents. Keith was 2018’s Country Music Association Awards’ Entertainer of the Year and this year’s Academy of Country of Country Music Awards’ Entertainer of the Year.
While Faith plays the violin, Sunday plays the piano. Sunday has also shown an interest in acting but Nicole knows that she’d be a fool to try and shoehorn her little girl into following in her footsteps.
“You can’t really get kids into anything, I’ve realised. You can push them a bit, but motivation is a really hard thing. I mean, nobody motivated me to be an actor; if anything they tried to deter me.”
While Nicole made Nashville her home 13 years ago, after she and Keith got married, her career often pulls her away from home, as does Keith’s with his sell-out music tours.
Nicole keeps Faith and Sunday with her as often as possible when she’s working, or flies home constantly during shoots if she can’t.
Some of her parenting policies make her “unpopular”.
“They don’t have a phone and I don’t allow them to have an Instagram,” she says. “I try to keep some sort of boundaries.”
Sounds like a parent to us!