Nicole Kidman says her Oscar win left her ‘so grateful and yet so lonely’

Nicole Kidman says the night she finally held her Academy Award was also the night she realized how alone she felt. Fresh off winning Best Actress for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours, she went home with the statue in hand — and a sudden absence hit her.

“I had, like, I have my mom with me and my dad, but I was like, where's my partner? I'm holding this gold statue where you go ‘this is it. ’ The highest sort of prize you can get in our industry, and so grateful. And yet, so lonely.”

Kidman shared the memory on the podcast Therapuss with Jake Shane, calling the win the pinnacle of her professional life but also a turning point. She said that moment pushed her to re-center her personal life after years of racing from project to project.

After the Cruise split

The timeline tracks with where she was then. Kidman and Tom Cruise divorced in 2001 after more than a decade of marriage. They share two children, Isabella and Connor, who were adopted during their time together.

Enter Keith Urban

Nearly two years after her Oscar, Kidman met Keith Urban at a G’Day USA gala in Los Angeles. They began dating, married in 2006, and later welcomed daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

“That man is the best thing that's ever happened to me,” she told Gayle King in a past interview.

Earlier this year, the couple announced their separation after 19 years of marriage. During the divorce proceedings, Kidman was given custody of their two daughters with Urban.