Two years back, while on his successful Las Vegas residency, Keith Urban took a moment to invite his wife Nicole Kidman on stage. ‘We have birthdays to celebrate, teachers in the audience, wives in the crowd…’ Urban said smoothly as he stepped offstage, returning with a barefooted Nicole in denim jeans by his side.

‘She’s a sunshine hippie,’ he declared, wrapping his arms around her before declaring: ‘Happy birthday, babygirl.’

During that same series of shows, images of their June 2006 wedding displayed on a large screen as he performed his track Without You, sharing stories with the attendees about his affection for his movie star spouse.

Jump to now, during Keith Urban’s latest High And Alive tour – where just last night he captivated fans in Connecticut – and the atmosphere has noticeably shifted.

There’s no wedding ring in sight, nor any mention of Kidman. Though, somewhat awkwardly, a photo of the actress with their daughters, Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14, is still featured during a photo montage set to his tune Heart Like A Hometown. This would have been arranged when the tour plans were finalized, well before their separation.

Urban made no mention of it or of his ‘babygirl’, his pet name for Kidman, which is tattooed on his neck (at least for now).

Currently, the focus seems to be on a group of female musicians sharing the stage with him at his shows – all younger and notably beautiful.

And, if the rumour mill in Nashville is to be believed, there may be more to his on-stage flirting than meets the eye.

‘There’s buzz that he might be seeing a younger woman in the industry,’ a music industry publicist disclosed to the Daily Mail this week. ‘It’s the talk of the town. Everyone’s curious about her identity, but as of now, it’s still unknown.’

News that the couple, widely considered rock solid, had split sent ripples through the world of showbusiness on Monday night. By Tuesday, Kidman had filed for divorce, citing their ‘irreconcilable differences’.

The couple appear keen to resolve the break-up swiftly. Divorce papers indicate they have already agreed custody arrangements, with both waiving any spousal support and child support, each indicating they will retain their own assets.

The Daily Mail has discovered that Kidman, who famously spoke of how she was blindsided by the demise of her first marriage to Tom Cruise, has enlisted the services of a lawyer dubbed the Steel Magnolia, Marlene Eskind Moses, and her daughter, also a lawyer, Marissa Moses Russ. Moses helped steer fellow Nashville resident Reese Witherspoon – the woman Kidman calls one of her ‘best besties’ – through her split from Jim Toth in 2023.

The Big Little Lies co-stars and co-producers were seen power walking in Nashville when Witherspoon’s marital woes became public, and it would seem the solidarity is a two-way street. According to numerous sources in Nashville, Nicole is struggling with a sense of ‘betrayal’.

There has been speculation about the actress’s apparent ‘second teenagerhood’ and of a ‘bottomless need for sexual attention’ as drivers for the split. But in Nashville, all the talk is about Urban’s behaviour.

‘Nicole’s hurt and feels betrayed,’ one source told People magazine. ‘It’s devastating to her. She’s shocked.’ The insider also claimed that Nicole ‘didn’t want this and has been fighting to save the marriage’.

The news website TMZ – which broke the story of the separation – went further. ‘All the signs point to the fact Keith is with another woman,’ a Kidman source told TMZ. ‘Let’s just say, Nicole doesn’t dispute that. But she’s still shocked over it.’

Perhaps they were picking up the clues seeded by an anonymous item on the site Deux Moi, which spoke of a musician cheating on his A-list actress wife by bringing his long-time mistress on tour.

A Nashville insider says: ‘It is the talk of the town that he’s been seeing someone or other people “all summer”.’

Kidman’s team won’t comment on the rumours and neither will Urban’s, which is odd as in the circumstances you might expect a denial.

It is customary when a longstanding Hollywood marriage ends to issue a ‘smoothing over’ statement, noting gratitude for the good times and saying that no third party is involved. It’s glaringly not the case here.

So why are there so many rumours around Urban? Well, as one Nashville source puts it: ‘He seems different now, different on stage and different in person.’

Others describe it as a midlife crisis. ‘Keith has a lot of people who are veryworried about him right now and the direction he’s headed,’ an insider told New Idea in Australia.

It’s certainly been obvious to his fans things have changed. One said: ‘We saw Keith play in Melbourne a few weeks ago and wondered if they were still together as he made no mention of Nicole and the girls.’ Another said: ‘We saw him in Chicago and no mention of Nicole.’

Behind the scenes, the couple have spent very little time together for a long while. Reports suggest Urban had already moved out of the marital home in Nashville and has another place in the city.

Kidman spent much of the summer in the UK, filming Practical Magic 2, with Sandra Bullock, while Urban was touring in the US and Australia.

The last time the two were seen together was a few days before their 19th wedding anniversary in June, at a FIFA Club World Cup match in Nashville.

Kidman hasn’t hidden the deep grief she has felt following the death of her mother last year, and appears to have immersed herself in work.

A social media post documenting photos of her summer is conspicuous by the absence of the man she once said was her ‘deep, deep love’.

Their distance was noted by Australian magazine Woman’s Day only weeks ago, with an insider claiming: ‘They do make an effort to speak every day when they’re apart, but it is shocking how much time they’ve spent apart since Nicole’s mother died last September. It’s like they both went their separate ways.’

But the omens were perhaps there as far back as September last year when Kidman told interviewers, while promoting her Netflix series The Perfect Couple: ‘There’s no perfect anything. Anything that’s presented as perfect… forget it.’

The gossip surrounding Urban in Nashville seems to have started with the departure of Jerry Flowers, his bandleader of 25 years and Nathan Barlowe, a multi-instrumentalist. At the time, Urban declared: ‘It feels really good, I’ve always followed the inner voice that says it’s time to make a change in any area of my life and sort of just take the leap.’

He has since hired his trio of glamorous female musicians and fans can’t help but notice that he’s in the habit of praising them during his shows.

None of this means, of course, that there is anything untoward going on but everyone can see why Kidman may feel jealous and unsettled by the scenes unfolding on stage. Perhaps most prominent among the bevy of musicians is up-and-coming 25-year-old starlet Maggie Baugh, a classically trained violinist who is also a talented guitarist and singer, and who has made several appearances in Urban’s backing line-up.

Social media has been flooded with speculation about Baugh and her very warm interactions with Urban on stage, not least the moment he changed a line of his song The Fighter – a song he has previously said was inspired by Kidman – to reference her.

The moment in question was documented on Baugh’s own social media only days before the divorce announcement

Rather than singing ‘When they’re tryna get to you, baby, I’ll be the fighter,’ Urban sang instead: ‘When they’re tryna get to you, Maggie, I’ll be your guitar player.’

‘Did he just say that,’ Baugh captioned the clip.

In an earlier video, Urban points at Baugh right before singing: ‘I was born to love you.’

Urban, it should be said, has history for tweaking his lyrics to reflect who he is performing with. Nevertheless, the videos have garnered attention.

Baugh, who was writing and performing her own country music before she’d hit her teens, has made no secret of her admiration for Urban. She follows him on Instagram, although curiously, considering the other support acts he does follow, he does not currently follow her.

‘Last year, I was on tour with Keith Urban and it’s been a crazy wild journey, man,’ Baugh gushed to the Hamilton County Reporter last week.

Baugh’s parents too have made no disguise of their pride in their daughter’s stage appearances with Urban, taking in one of his concerts for their wedding anniversary.

Asked about the rumours, Baugh’s dad, a microbiologist, told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m just the dad, I know nothing about it.’ Baugh did not respond to requests for comment. Two other rising country music stars are also on the bill as his support acts – Alana Springsteen, 24, and Karley Scott Collins, 25.

Scott Collins has toured with Urban and other country stars like Willie Nelson and is signed to Sony Music in Nashville and CAA in LA. ‘It’s amazing being on the road with Keith,’ she said this year. ‘He’s an incredible entertainer, and I respect him so much… and I’ve learned a lot watching him.’

In a video posted on Instagram to mark her tour with him, they couldn’t appear to be more delighted and giggly in each other’s company. A photo posted on Instagram on July 16 this year, meanwhile, shows them with their arms around each other, heads resting on each other’s shoulders. ‘Somebody pinch me,’ writes Scott Collins. ‘I feel like I’m dreamin’.’ 

A number of concert goers have noticed that Urban talks about his admiration for her at length on stage. ‘He talks a lot about Karley,’ said one.

Scott Collins did not respond to requests for comment on the nature of their relationship this week.

Alana Springsteen, meanwhile, who is no relation to Bruce, is another leggy emerging talent from Nashville, who appeared on stage with Urban on Thursday. Reviews have noted she and Urban have an ‘undeniable chemistry and their voices blend seamlessly on stage’.

‘Keith is one of those guys that I’ve looked up to for so long,’ Springsteen said at the Stagecoach Festival. She also declined to comment on the nature of her relationship with Urban.

How bitter it must be for Kidman, who staged an intervention to help him with his struggles with alcohol and cocaine addiction just four months into their marriage, to see him being adored and apparently carefree, with women who could quite easily be his daughters.

The US publication People reported on Thursday a source saying she was ‘surprisingly level-headed and calm. Now that it’s out, she’s just focused on what’s ahead and her girls’.

She is understood to have sought comfort in A-list friends Naomi Watts, a fellow Australian who she met as a teenager, and who once referred to Kidman as ‘like the sister I never had’ and in Deborra Lee-Furness, who endured her own painful marital split from Hugh Jackman in 2023.

But her biggest support, as was the case when her high-profile marriage to Tom Cruise ended (with whom she adopted two children), has been her sister Antonia. The two women (Antonia three years the junior) are the best of friends.

Back in February 2001, when news broke that one of Hollywood’s best-known couples had split, it was Antonia, along with their mother Janelle, who rushed to Kidman’s side. This week Antonia was with her in Nashville.

In the wake of her last divorce, Kidman appeared on the sofa of chat show queen Oprah Winfrey and said: ‘I think that divorce is hard for anyone. It’s a nightmare, it just is, and you can pretend you’re fine. And days you’re great and days you’re not great.’

Words she may want to reflect on now.

• Additional reporting: Barbara McMahon