Nicole Kidman has opened up about her marriage to Tom Cruise, penning an emotional essay that says her ex-husband’s Hollywood status afforded her a level of protection from sexual harassment.
Published in the latest issue of New York Magazine, Kidman writes: “Being married to Tom Cruise at 22 is something I’m always reluctant to talk about, because I’m married now to the man who is my great love [Keith Urban], and it almost feels disrespectful.
“That said, I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection.”
Cruise and Kidman were married in 1990, after co-starring in the film Days of Thunder together earlier that year. They adopted two children together — Isabella, 25, and Connor, 23 — before divorcing in 2001.
Kidman now admits that her marriage “cocooned” her from the dark side of the entertainment industry.
“I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed,” she writes. “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.”
But, the Australian star admits that she has experienced sexual harassment in the industry.
“But do I want to expose them in an article? No. Do they come out in my work? Absolutely. I’m open and raw. I want to have my well of experience and emotion tapped into — used, and I’m not just talking about sexual harassment. I’m talking about loss, death, the full array of life. But it has to be by the right people so it’s not abused again.”
