Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s intense love and tragedy months into marriage
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have been married for seventeen years, which by Hollywood measures, is an eternity.
Tying the knot in the St. Patrick's Estate in the beachy Manly suburb of Sydney, Australia, in 2006, the happy couple probably didn't realise at the time that they would go on to become one of the entertainment industry's most cherished couples. And it is clear why the duo's relationship has been idolised, as they have stood by each other through difficult times, including Nicole dropping everything to support the country singer as he checked into rehab just a few months after their marriage.
But what exactly led to Oscar winner Nicole's unwavering support to her other half, and how have they managed to keep their bond so strong over the years? It all started in 2005 when Keith and Urban met at the G'Day USA gala. While Nicole was instantly smitten with the Days Go By singer and even exchanged numbers with him, it took him a while to feel the same way.
Reflecting on their humble beginnings, Nicole told Ellen DeGeneres in 2017: "I had such a crush on him, and he wasn't interested in me. It's true! He didn't call me for four months."
In a later interview with CBS News in 2016, Keith gushed: "Meeting her and getting married wasn't life-changing, it was life-beginning." A little over a year after getting together, the pair became engaged in May 2006 with the Moulin Rouge actress confirming the happy news to PEOPLE. The following month, they tied the knot in Nicole's native Australia, with the actress' children Isabella Jane and Connor Antony, whom she shares with ex Tom Cruise, as part of the ceremony. They enjoyed their honeymoon in French Polynesia.
Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tourHowever, it wasn't all newlywed bliss as Keith, who had previously been vocal about his drug use in the nineties, checked into the Betty Ford Center in October 2006 to seek help for alcohol addiction. The rehab stay was organised by Nicole, who was so determined to help him that she called off the rest of her press tour for Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus to be by his side if he needed her.
Reflecting on that time of his life, he told Rolling Stone in 2014 that he was "very, very blessed" to have Nicole stage the intervention for him. Keith was released from rehab after three months. Later, the busy couple were keen to put down roots and purchased a farm southwest of Nashville, where they still reside today.
In January 2008, Nicole and Keith confirmed they were expecting their first child together, and months later, in July, they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Sunday Rose. Two years later, they welcomed their second daughter Faith via surrogate.
Since then, the pair's bond has only gotten stronger, with Keith supporting his wife after the sudden passing of her father in 2014.
Years later, in 2018, he once again commended Nicole for getting him through some of the more challenging years of his life. "I was living a very small life. My life was getting smaller and smaller, and that is how I kept it manageable," he said at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. "I was lucky I had a very loving wife. [Getting sober] has freed me up creatively."
Last year, Nicole gushed that Keith was the "best thing that's ever happened to her" during an interview with Gayle King. In July of this year, the happy couple celebrated seventeen of marriage.
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