A smiling man in a dark blazer and white shirt stands in front of a curly-haired blonde woman who holds his arms from behind, outdoors in Los Angeles.
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Nicole Kidman Says She Was Ready to Throw Her Career Away for Tom Cruise, in a New British Vogue Interview

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“I got married so young. Suddenly I was 22, 23 years old and I had this huge movie star husband. But it just seemed completely natural. We just fell madly in love and it was that simple.”

“They were like, ‘See, we told you.’ I’m like, ‘So what? I wasn’t meant to marry the man I love? Of course I’ll throw my career away. I don’t care.”’

—Nicole Kidman, British Vogue

A woman with curly strawberry-blonde hair and a white shirt stands beside a dark-haired man wearing black sunglasses and a white striped shirt.
An early glimpse of the couple: Kidman in a white button-down and Cruise in sunglasses, photographed together in Los Angeles circa 1990. Photo by Terry McGinnis / WireImage via Getty Images.

Kidman told British Vogue she would have walked away from her career without a second thought to be with Tom Cruise. People around her were warning that the marriage would swallow the momentum she’d just started building, and she wasn’t interested in the math.

A smiling dark-haired man in a dark blazer stands in front of a curly-haired blonde woman in a black top on a city street.
Cruise flashes a wide grin while Kidman rests her hands on his shoulders during a Los Angeles outing in 1992. Photo by Vinnie Zuffante / Archive Photos via Getty Images.

She was 23 when they married in 1990, on the verge of her Hollywood breakout, and Cruise was one of the biggest stars in the world. They went on to co-star in “Far and Away” in 1992 and “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999, and adopted two children together: Isabella, born in 1992, and Connor, born in 1995.

A woman with long red wavy hair in an off-shoulder top smiles next to a dark-haired man in a black shirt in front of a stone garden backdrop.
Smiling side by side in the gardens of the Ritz Hotel, the pair attended a photocall in September 1999 to promote Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ Photo by RONCEN Patrick / Sygma via Getty Images.

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The marriage ended in 2001, cited as irreconcilable differences. After the split, the kids were largely raised by Cruise inside Scientology, a subject Kidman has almost never discussed in public, saying only that she loves them unconditionally and lets them lead their own lives.

A curly-haired woman in a black gown stands beside a dark-haired man in a tuxedo amid a crowd at a formal event.
At the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, the couple posed on a packed red-carpet floor, both dressed in black formal wear. Photo by Pool ARNAL/GARCIA/PICOT / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

The career she was ready to throw away didn’t go anywhere. She won the Best Actress Oscar for “The Hours” in 2003 and has worked steadily since. She later had two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, with Keith Urban, from whom she separated last year.

A curly-haired woman in a low-cut black floral dress stands next to a dark-haired man in a suit at an outdoor event.
Kidman, in a sheer floral gown, stands alongside Cruise at the Beverly Hills premiere of ‘The Firm’ in June 1993. Photo by Barry King / WireImage via Getty Images.

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