They say even the darkest clouds have silver linings – and that might just be true in the case of Nicole Kidman, who’s weathered some serious highs and lows over the past year.
Earlier this month, the actress announced her “heart [was] broken” after the sudden and unexpected death of her beloved mother, Janelle, at the age of 84. Nicole had only just arrived at the Venice Film Festival – where, hours later, she would win the award for Best Actress for her role in new film Babygirl. Skipping the ceremony to immediately return to Australia, the star paid tribute to Janelle in a statement, saying, “I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me…The collision of life and art is heartbreaking.”
But while Nicole has since been picking up the pieces of her loss and spending time with her husband, Keith Urban, 56, their daughters, Sunday, 16, and Faith, 13, her sister, Antonia, and her extended family, the silver lining seems to be one she never saw coming: and that’s making contact with the two older children she’s long ached to hear from.
According to Australia’s Woman’s Day, Nicole, 57, was surprised and touched to receive a message of condolence from Isabella, 31, and Connor, 29 – whom she adopted with first husband, Tom Cruise, and who stayed with the latter following his and Nicole’s bitter split in 2001.
“The most heartwarming thing has been for Nicole to get a joint message from Bella and Connor, who she’s not heard from in a very long time,” an insider told the publication earlier this week. “It’s kind of sad it took such a tragic moment to bring them back into her life, but she knows it would make her mum so happy if her passing brought her estranged grandkids back into the family. If there’s a chance, Nicole will take time out of her career to give it her best shot.”
Despite her love and passion for her stellar career, for which she’s continued to receive plaudits this year, family has always been at the forefront of Nicole’s mind. Indeed, while accepting this year’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in LA earlier this year (and becoming the first Australian to do so), the star didn’t waste the opportunity to thank her two younger daughters, who were present in the audience. “This is all because of you and I love you so much.”
This, of course, has notoriously made her estrangement from her two older children all the more painful. Though the family has long denied any semblance of a feud, the facts remain that she hasn’t been pictured with them in 17 years. That year, in 2007, she said in an interview, “My kids don’t call me mommy. They call me Nicole, which I hate and tell them off for it.”
Having chosen to live with their dad, it’s long been reported that Tom’s dedication and commitment to Scientology – and his and Nicole’s children’s zeal, by proxy – ultimately drove a wedge between them and their mother. As a so-called “suppressive person” or “SP” (that is, somebody who’s left the Church of Scientology), Nicole is considered to be an enemy of the religious organisation – making contact with Bella and Connor tricky. According to reports, Bella has a slightly more amiable relationship with Nicole, despite the fact that the latter didn’t attend Bella’s wedding in 2015. She still goes by the surname “Kidman Cruise” on Instagram, and even likes some of her mum’s posts on the same platform. Connor, meanwhile, is said to be more estranged from Nicole. The high-ranking Scientologist goes by the surname “Cruise” online, and reportedly spends most of his time working at the church’s “spiritual headquarters”, the Flag Service Organisation, in Florida, and living in a Scientology-owned compound nearby.
In 2018, Nicole acknowledged the religious organisation’s contribution to the breakdown of her relationship with her older children, while pledging her continued love and support for them. “They are able to make their own choices,” she said of Connor and Bella. “They have made choices to be Scientologists and, as a mother, it’s my job to love them. And I am an example of that tolerance and that’s what I believe – that no matter what your child does, the child has love and the child has to know there is available love, and I’m open here. I think that’s so important because, if that is taken away from a child, to sever that in any child, in any relationship, in any family, I believe it’s wrong. So, that’s our job as a parent – to always offer unconditional love.”
Still, it’s no secret that the pain of no longer having them present in her life has been a constant source of anguish for the star, despite her many accolades and joys in life. Now, having lost her mother, insiders say she yearns to have her family back together even more. After all, they are the people who have always made her feel complete.
Poignantly, it was Janelle and Bella who both joined her at the Oscars in 2003, when she won Best Actress for The Hours. “My whole life I’ve wanted to make my mother proud, and now I want to make my daughter proud,” she said while accepting the speech. Two decades later, that fact remains, which makes Bella and Connor’s decision to reach out to their mother now in her time of need and loss all the more meaningful.
Let’s not forget, neither Bella nor Connor attended Nicole’s father Antony’s funeral in 2014 – an absence that was said to hurt their mother deeply. But with news that they’ve now reached out following Janelle’s passing, it seems more possible than ever that, this time, the trio might just be laying the foundations for a long-awaited reunion. And for Nicole – in a year of extreme highs and lows – that would be the best gift of all.