Nicole Kidman Repeats Her 2001 Slip-Up

Backdropped by a sunlit ocean, Nicole Kidman basks in a romantic serenade from guitar-strumming hubby Keith Urban.

‘Forever [heart emoji] #happyanniversary,’ read the accompanying caption posted on Instagram last summer, marking yet another ‘intimate’ picture-perfect moment shared with the public.

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

Urban is allegedly in a bachelor pad and rumored to have a younger new squeeze following the couple’s shock split after nearly 20 years of marriage.

Indeed, the glacial gazelle and country crooner with curtain bangs and lifted shoes are no more – it seems history has repeated itself.

Urban was thought to be the genuine match; another Australian, a kindred spirit, Kidman’s happy conclusion after her acrimonious split from Tom Cruise in 2001.

But La La Land love matches have a habit of veering off script.

Sources say it was Urban, 57, who initiated the separation because of his ‘unhappiness’ in the marriage and, it seems, Kidman, 58, who had moved to Nashville to be with him, was ‘caught off guard.’ She filed for divorce on Tuesday.

Indeed, the glacial gazelle and country crooner with curtain bangs and lifted shoes are no more – it seems history has repeated itself 

Urban was believed to be the perfect match; a fellow Aussie, a kindred spirit, Kidman’s happy ending following her bitter split from Tom Cruise (pictured with Kidman in 1992) in 2001

‘Forever [heart emoji] #happyanniversary,’ gushed the accompanying caption posted on Instagram last summer. Oh, what a difference a year makes

For someone who has been vocal about passionate mid-life marriages, the embarrassment of another public breakup will sting; yet again, being left by a smaller-statured husband.

Remember, the days when Kidman and Cruise were Hollywood royalty reveling in their power duo status and owning the red carpet?

She was a relatively unknown Australian actress who skyrocketed from B movie obscurity to the A-list, acting alongside Cruise in the 1990 film Days of Thunder. They married that same year, a seemingly solid union until Cruise ended it just after their 10th anniversary.

Court papers confirmed that Cruise, now 63, had instigated proceedings, and Kidman had battled to save it.

‘She knows why’ was Cruise’s cryptic response when asked about the split in 2002. Though the actress seemed in the dark.

‘I thought our life together was perfect. It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system,’ she revealed in a 2012 interview with DuJour Magazine.

Perhaps it explains why she seemed so intent on proving a point with her life with Urban and their two daughters – that she really can do marriage.

Big on saccharine gestures, no self-indulgent detail was ever too dull to dispense. ‘We have breakfast together every morning,’ she revealed solemnly in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning to wide eyed correspondent Tracy Smith.

Then there were the schmaltzy public declarations with Urban’s devotion and gratitude, a familiar trope forever placing ‘out of his league’ Kidman on the pedestal where she always seems most at home.

Remember that syrupy public tribute the singer paid to his wife at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award last year? Even in room of sycophantic luvvies – including a very emotional Meryl Streep – the sentiment was laid on thick.

‘Nic had such a truly otherworldly aura about her, and I felt a bit like I was meeting a real-life princess,’ he recalled of the couple’s first meeting at a G’Day LA event for Aussies in Hollywood in 2005.

‘As prone as I might have been at the time to all sorts of delusional thinking, even I couldn’t stretch that to think that this extraordinary woman would ever see anything in a guy like me.’

Yes, poor, humble Keith. You’d think he was a regular Joe rather than multiple Grammy award winner.

Remember, the days when Kidman and Cruise were Hollywood royalty reveling in their power duo status and owning the red carpet?

Perhaps it explains why Kidman (pictured in 2017) seemed so intent on proving a point with her life with Urban and their two daughters – that she really can do marriage

Was he simply feeding a rampant ego and the insecurities that have seemingly spiraled and rendered her face frozen? It’s little surprise the actress has cornered the market in playing uptight and Botoxxed rich wives in shows such as Perfect Couple and Big Little Lies in recent years.

And perhaps it has also led to some questionable career choices, including kinkier on-screen exploits with much-younger love interests, Zac Efron in Netflix’s Family Affair and Harris Dickinson in Babygirl. Her flesh-flashing star turns may have been lauded as brave and empowering in some quarters, but they reek of ‘still got it’ vanity projects – a mid-life crisis playing out on screen.

But for all that heat, things apparently turned stone cold back at the ranch.

A no longer besotted Urban may well be having his own midlife crisis, as a rumored new girlfriend has been the talk of Nashville.

No one ever really knows what goes on behind closed doors, but there appears to be a recurrent theme: Kidman never sees it coming.

In truth, it is juvenile for someone of her stature and track record to persist in flaunting a supposed fairytale, still allowing herself to be heavily defined by celebrity coupledom.

When she was a 20-something Mrs Tom Cruise, yet to fully prove her acting prowess, she at times appeared little more than Mr Hollywood’s decorative plus one.

But some 30 years on, with an Oscar and several Golden Globe awards later, her relationships don’t need to keep defining her – and a more discrete and less smug private life would have been a classier route.

While it wouldn’t have necessarily guaranteed a different outcome, the messy fallout would have been far less public.