Nicole Kidman opened up about her views on sexuality, both in her personal life and in her film roles, while discussing initiatives to transform women’s roles in Hollywood.

Following her surprising separation from Keith Urban after a 19-year marriage, the 58-year-old Oscar winner expressed an attraction to characters portraying sexual power, vulnerability, and shame.

“As more women actors are launching production companies, the nature of roles is evolving,” Kidman told Vogue. “We’ve moved beyond the traditional Madonna-whore stereotype.”

She continued: ‘Sex is an important part of our lives and is still, a lot of times, taboo,’ she said. ‘And it shouldn’t be.’ 

When questioned about her frequent choice of bold roles, the mother-of-four quietly admitted, “I don’t know. It’s strange that I don’t know why, isn’t it?”

Despite her reputation for taking bold creative risks, the Moulin Rouge! star insists she’s actually an introvert.

Still, she firmly believes that speaking openly about intimacy shouldn’t just be done behind closed doors.

Reflecting on her work spanning from erotic thrillers to period dramas, Kidman noted that her 2024 film, Babygirl, serves as a fitting conclusion to her 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, made alongside then-husband Tom Cruise.

‘One ends with the word f*** and the other one ends with the actual action,’ she joked. ‘And there is my career!’

The performer also admitted she loves taking on parts that she ‘can’t even mentally grab.’

‘Taking a risk is what I’ve always done,’ she explained. ‘You get back up and you try again and you learn… I still go back to shoestring indie filmmaking because it was where I was born.’ 

As for how she handles criticism and online hate, Kidman says one must ‘literally walk away from it’ or ‘it will destroy you.’

During the interview, which took place before Kidman filed for divorce last month, she cryptically hinted to the unpredictability of life. 

‘How many times do you have to be taught that you think you know where your life is going and then it isn’t going in that direction?’ she asked. 

Despite the heartbreak, Kidman mentioned she has a close circle of ‘ride-or-die’ girlfriends in Nashville that she leans on for support.

This includes her Big Little Lies costar and longtime pal, Reese Witherspoon, who lives so close they can ‘wave’ to each other from their respective kitchens. 

The actress also stated that she uses the highs and lows of life to fuel her work. 

‘That’s the beauty of what I do. There’s a place for some of this to explode, implode, process, discover,’ she said. 

Kidman did not address the divorce directly during her interview but was instead ‘wry, rueful, unsure of herself’ when asked about how she felt now in her 50s.

 Last Tuesday, Kidman filed to end the marriage, citing irreconcilable differences, as a source claimed to the Daily Mail that Urban has already moved on with an unnamed female musician.

The well-placed Nashville music business PR source said: ‘The rumor is that he’s with a younger woman in the business.

‘It’s all everyone is talking about. Everyone wants to know who, but so far, that’s a mystery.’

Neither were seeking spousal support: the New Zealand-born Australian singer is worth an estimated $75 million while the Hawaiian-born Australian actress has earned over $250 million.

It then emerged that the pair had signed a parenting agreement over the summer, in which Kidman was granted primary custody of their teenage daughters – 306 days a year compared to a mere 59 days for Urban.

He is entitled to have the girls from 10am on Saturday until 6pm on Sunday, every other weekend. The holidays were also divided up: he gets every Father’s Day and she gets every Mother’s Day and Easter. Thanksgivings and Christmas switch from year to year.

He signed the contract on August 29 before she inked the deal a week later, on September 6.

Urban is currently on his High and Alive tour, which wraps up on October 17 in Nashville.

‘He isn’t going through a midlife crisis,’ another source close Kidman said. ‘He is going through changes in his personal and professional life, and they just happen to be happening all at once.

‘He is just going through a rough patch, and this will eventually pass, and he will make it on the other side.

‘He’s just fallen out of love with Nicole, and the decisions that have had to be made are ones that were and are important to him, as he knows that they aren’t getting back together.’

Kidman is currently working on producing the thriller The Silent Wife and developing the film Love, Pain and the Whole Damn Thing.

An insider told People that the star is ‘surprisingly level-headed and calm’ and ‘focused on what’s ahead and her girls.’

The former couple’s marriage began to fall apart at the beginning of summer 2025. 

The split was reportedly a long-term development, stemming from months of quiet separation and diverging paths due to work commitments, according to Daily Mail sources. 

The pair met at the G’Day LA gala ball in January 2005. 

In a 2013 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the Babygirl star confessed it wasn’t until four months after they met that Urban asked her out.

She recalled: ‘I’m like, “You didn’t love me at first sight, you didn’t notice me,” and he’s like, “Yes I did but I just didn’t let on,” but we kind of met and then about four months later he called me.’

On the Australian talk show Interview in 2018, Urban admitted he had to muster the confidence to call the movie star.

‘I’d never have thought she’d see anything in a guy like me. But at some point I plucked up the courage to call those numbers, and she answered,’ he said.

‘We started talking, and we talked and talked and talked and talked, and it was effortless.’ the singer added.

The couple made their public debut at the 2006 Grammy Awards, skipping the red carpet but canoodling inside the annual awards ceremony. 

Kidman and Urban tied the knot in 2006 during a traditional Catholic ceremony at the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel in Sydney, Australia.

The silver screen siren was previously married to Cruise, with whom she shares two adult children.

The former husband and wife were married from 1990-2001. They adopted daughter Bella, 32, and son Connor, 30.