It’s official. There is no caliber of woman who cannot be fumbled by a man with a bad haircut. On Monday, news broke that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, who married in 2006, have been separated “since the beginning of summer.” Even more disturbing? According to TMZ, the split is “one-sided” and Nicole “did not want the separation and has been trying to save the marriage.” If I had any Keith Urban records, I’d burn them.
According to TMZ’s source, Kidman has been “holding the family together” after Keith moved out of the Nashville home they share with their two children, Sunday Rose (17) and Faith Margaret (14). Instead, he’s living…elsewhere in Nashville. As someone who is currently five seasons deep into a Mad Men rewatch, this is all feeling eerily familiar.
Since news of the split broke, fans have been poring over the couple’s recent interactions to search for clues to their relationship’s demise. As it turns out, there were a few. The couple haven’t been seen in public together since late June, and fans quickly noted that while Nicole posted a pic on Instagram celebrating the couple’s 19th (!!!) wedding anniversary with the caption “Happy Anniversary Baby ❤️,” Keith didn’t post jack shit. He just responded to Nicole in the comments with a “❤️” of his own. Diabolical.
And before you ask, yes, I did go to Keith’s Insta and yes, he does post regularly—19 times since their anniversary, to be exact—so he doesn’t get to play the “off the grid musician who doesn’t do social media” card. And frankly, we should all be careful who we allow to play this card in general. If they wanted to post about their beautiful partner on their 19th wedding anniversary, they would.
There were other clues, too. In June, Urban abruptly ended a Zoom interview on Mix 102.3’s Haley & Max in the Morning after being asked about Kidman’s sex scenes with Zac Efron in the Netflix drama A Family Affair. At the time, many assumed we were just dealing with a classic case of Southern Wife Guy Shit. In light of recent news, however, we all must wonder if we were actually dealing with a case of Southern Wife Guy Shit…turned sinister.
Then there was Urbans’s April 2024 AFI Lifetime Achievement Award Gala speech, in which he referred to a time he almost “blew [the] marriage to smithereens” four months in due to his struggles with addiction. He then praised his soon-to-be-ex for sticking with him during that time (and for nearly two decades after, but who’s counting?).
Days before news of the split broke, Kidman attended an event for Clé de Peau Beauté with only a Vivienne Westwood gown and $47,000 worth of jewelry as company. She’s also been noticeably absent during Urban’s High and Alive World Tour, which kicked off in May. Will this news ruin the tour–the world tour–for Urban going forward? Hard to say. But if there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that we may have a fresh batch of post-divorce Nicole Kidman social media moments to share in the coming months.
