Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban have separated after 19 years of marriage

Of all the long-term celebrity marriages, I never really got a sense that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were in any trouble. Now, I never believed that they were lovey-dovey 24-7, which is how they like to portray themselves. I think they both love to work and Keith has been on the road a lot throughout their marriage, just as Nicole has a jet-setting career as an actress and producer. Still, I thought they figured out how to make those schedules work for them. I guess not, because Keith apparently left Nicole in the early summer, and they are fully separated now.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have separated … TMZ has learned. Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the couple has been living apart “since the beginning of summer.”

We’re told Nicole has been taking care of their 2 children and, “holding the family together through this difficult time since Keith has been gone.”

As for why, we’re told it’s one-sided … Nicole did not want the separation and has been trying to save the marriage. One source said, “Keith has acquired his own residence in Nashville and has moved out of their family home,” which is also in Nashville.

As for whether the couple will divorce … to be determined. Keith and Nicole married in 2006. Their kids are 14 and 17.

[From TMZ]

People Mag confirmed TMZ’s report, and a source told People exclusively: “Nicole’s sister [Antonia] has been a rock and the entire Kidman family has come together to support one another. She didn’t want this. She has been fighting to save the marriage.” What’s your vibe? I’m shocked that HE left HER. I’m getting an “affair” vibe, especially because the split seems so sudden. Like, Keith just decided he was done in June. It’s really surprising – there are like a dozen other celeb couples which I would have pegged for separation before Nicole and Keith.

Update: People Mag reports that Nicole has just filed for divorce.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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100 Responses to “Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban have separated after 19 years of marriage”

  1. Gaffney says:

    It does sound a bit affairish but maybe I’m jaded.

    • Nina says:

      He’s cheated before. Apparently he was sleeping around on her just before their marriage. And he went to rehab just after they got married. So I don’t think it’s a leap to think he might be cheating.

      I’m sure Nicole is broken hearted but she deserves someone with better hair.

      • Kelly says:

        I’m kind of surprised the more details come out. He’s struggled with drug addiction in the past, including right after their wedding so I assumed he had relapsed again and she was done. That he just up and left? Yeah it sounds like he has a jump off.

    • lungta says:

      Perhaps Keith Urban couldn’t stomach the fact that Nicole is more successful than him? Really, I have no idea who Keith Urban is, except he’s a country singer & married to Nicole.

  2. ThatGirlThere says:

    As soon as I saw this I thought cheating on his part. It smells a little bit like Ben Affleck-ish. I never really trusted him or his highlights and fake country singing twang.

    I hope Nicole heals and moves on doing great work.

  3. Sasha says:

    I know this is superficial but I *never* understood those highlights. Just WHY! He must have maintained them religiously for years. I ask again whyyyyyyyyyyyy.

    • KNB says:

      @Sasha, I know! I was just thinking, how does everyone let him walk around with that ridiculous flat-ironed highlighted hair?

    • lucy2 says:

      It always reminds me of Billy Bob Cyrus, they both had the same hair for a minute there, and then Keith kept it for DECADES. It’s so odd to me!

      I’m going to really generalize here, but it’s rare that men do the leaving without someone else waiting in the wings.

      That’s sad for them and their family though, they were together a long time.

  4. Barbara says:

    I know Nicole gets crap for all the work she’s had done but she looks so much better than Keith. With his dumb highlights, flat ironed hair and horrible skin, he’s aged like spoiled milk.

  5. Dee(2) says:

    I don’t think anyone’s break up shocks me anymore, especially after it was reported in the news earlier this Summer that he had bought that house in Nashville and they were very clear that it was ” odd” that he was changing his residency and everything.

    Not sure why people presume that it has to be an affair, and that he had to be the one that cheated. Especially given the fact that she didn’t want the marriage to end and was trying to keep it together. Sounds more like he was fed up, than he found someone new. But who knows could have had problems for years and he was just sick of being in a holding pattern. Hopefully it’s not too much of a transition for their kids.

    • Alex Can says:

      I wish I had a better memory of this but several years ago they were featured in a magazine, maybe the focus was on her but he was around. They seemed ill at ease to my mind. He came across as being a bit grumpy. Though I don’t know him at all and maybe he’s always like that but he seemed annoyed with HER. And she seemed fake happy.

  6. ShoppeGirlMN says:

    I don’t see her as someone who would want to stay with a cheater. This feels more like mid-life crisis to me.

    • Kebbie says:

      Really? I feel like she’s the type to be perfectly happy looking the other way as long as he didn’t publicly embarrass her.

  7. grumpy says:

    I felt like she made herself small for him. I never understood his appeal.

    • QuiteContrary says:

      I agree with this completely.

      Her choice of partners has been tragic (Cruise most of all). She is so talented and smart — she deserves so much better.

      • Snark says:

        Really? I find her to be one of the most overrated actresses, I think she is one-note as an actress and perhaps the dullest interview I have ever seen. I have seen some real-life dull people sparkle on screen, but she seems to be dull on and off screen, just pretty.

      • Bitey says:

        I couldn’t agree more, Snark: I find her impossible to watch. She has never been able to achieve the one thing a real actor needs to: the ability to suspend the disbelief of the audience. Not once. It’s always that you’re watching NICOLE KIDMAN play a role; you’re never able to suspend the disbelief and engage in the role, it’s always just HER. She’s a freakin’ useless actress, I’ve never seen her do a single thing worthy of mentioning.

      • Desi says:

        I don’t think she’s overrated at all. She’s a great nuanced actress and has such a breadth of work. The Hours, Lion. Her acting has never come across as over the top, always believable.

        She was once engaged to Lenny Kravitz, which tells me she’s one cool girl, and not just a pretty face.

  8. Em says:

    They were always so over the top “in love” on red carpets that it always felt fake and performative. I am shocked to hear that he left her however. I expect that if they don’t reconcile, she’ll find someone new fast. Nicole doesn’t come across as someone who is comfortable without a man on standby.

    • Glossoph says:

      Well said Em. She strikes me as being a very insecure woman. And as some others have said, I find it very difficult to watch her. Part of it is all the work she has done to her face, which doesn’t allow her to emote and in some lighting she looks downright freaky, but even if that weren’t the case, she’s always herself. It’s always Nicole Kidman you are watching.

      Also, she’s over exposed and seems very unnatural to me; ie over-the-top controlled.

  9. TinaAppleTurnover says:

    I was going to say maybe she got tired of his awful haircut and terrible guy-lights. But I see that *he* left her. Who gets custody of the hair straightener?

    I’m getting an affair vibe, or he’s back on drugs and/or alcohol. Which I believe he had a problem with at some point.

    • Thinking says:

      I was wondering who might get custody of their plastic surgeon.

      • ambel says:

        Their plastic surgeon is no prize. She needs to ask JLo, Demi, or even Mama Chris for an intro to theirs.

    • AlpineWitch says:

      “Who gets custody of the hair straightener?”

      🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      Him, and that’s why he had already a flat with a huge bathroom ready to accommodate all his hair accessories 🤣

    • Sue says:

      My first guess was that he’s back on drugs/alcohol, she tried to help him, and he doesn’t want the help. She tried to save the marriage and has custody of the girls. That sounds like substance abuse to me. Sadly, you can’t save an addict, they have to save themselves.

      • bananapanda says:

        That’s exactly what I thought too. If so I hope he gets helps soon. She got him sober the first year of their marriage.

  10. Alla says:

    95% of men leave their wives because they already have someone else.

    • AlpineWitch says:

      So painfully true.

    • robem07 says:

      Came here to say something like that. Although, being apart so often is not healthy for any marriage.

    • Zapp Brannigan says:

      I remember when I was first dating, an older woman telling me “women leave when they’ve had enough, men leave when they’ve another woman “. I have seen that turn out to be true more often than not.

      • Normades says:

        Truer words never spoken

      • Alla says:

        @Zapp, excactly! Thats my experience too. Men dont give up the free caretakers and free se.x at home. They do it when they found someone else doing exactly the same. That’s the patriarchy in a nutshell. Most of them lack basic respect towards women. Because that’s what the patriarch society teached them. They get away with this easily. Not like women.

    • Libra says:

      I didn’t want to think it at first ,but the above comments ring true; there is someone else and 3 is a crowded marriage.

    • Jackie says:

      People don’t have an affair without there already being issues. The other person is often the catalyst to leave but not the cause.

      • Nikki says:

        I would have agreed with you years ago, but I’ve seen various men going through a mid life crisis, or suddenly dealing with some other issue, dump their wife to make a :new start”!! Agree w/poster who said most men already have someone on the side to hop into the new vacancy!

    • Deedee says:

      Thats the skinny over at DM.

  11. seraphina says:

    He gives me Billy Ray Cyrus vibes.

  12. Jackie says:

    I always thought she must be an exhausting person to be married to. She’s very dramatic, nothing is ordinary, everything is extraordinary. And she’s so performative on the red carpet – as she was with Tom too. I didn’t think much of him until I saw him as a judge on Australian Idol. He’s very sweet, very genuine. These early reports sound like she’s been in charge of the story coming out. Nicole fought to save the marriage, while caring fir the children – oh and filming Practical Magic 2.

    • Normades says:

      I think she comes off incredibly charming in interviews. But bad picker.

      • Jackie says:

        Yes she does. But if you think about how she describes things everything is extra. A friend is always a deep friend she’d do anything for. Her marriage, her relationships with her family, nothing is ever less than extraordinary.

      • Alla says:

        @Nomad, no, its not bad picker. Most men sell themselves as good men in the beginning. That’s how they get the women. They are very good in hiding their real character. When you realise who they really are, it’s mostly too late, you fell in love and not everyone has the strength to leave immediately. It’s pretty hard to find a decent partner! Saying bad picker leaves the whole responsibility to the woman and that’s not fair.

    • Jay says:

      A professional actor? Who is dramatic??? Never heard of such a thing!

  13. Amy Bee says:

    They always felt mismatched to me. I have my suspicions about Keith that I will keep to myself.

  14. Becks1 says:

    I feel like Nicole’s career has had a resurgence in the past 5 years – I know she has always worked, but I feel like between the TV series and movies she probably isn’t home a lot and that might not have been the case when they first got married. So maybe that wasn’t what he signed up for and he peaced out. But I feel like he’s busy too with touring and appearances and such so who knows.

    Anyway I was surprised when I heard this but it doesn’t sound super messy so far. i am not getting an affair vibe at this point bc I think we would be hearing something different from Nicole’s camp if he had the affair. (maybe she had one?)

  15. 809Matriarch says:

    I am so sorry to hear this 🥺

    • DaveW says:

      That’s all I have too. I don’t know either of these people or know anyone who does, and famous or not it has to be difficult when an almost 20 year marriage breaks apart.

  16. Chaine says:

    They both come across as very performative, difficult people. He has dealt with addiction throughout their marriage, so imo this is either him having another substance abuse crisis or feeling that he needed to end the relationship to avoid one. That being said, now that it’s been established they’re split, watch him get papped with a thirty something country music hanger-on real quick.

  17. Kirsten says:

    You obviously never know what goes on behind closed doors, but this split surprises me.

  18. Goldenkatz says:

    I remember the first year of their marriage he was in rehab. And I thought she would drop him then. And here we are almost 20 years later and he dumps her? I’m getting Hugh Jackman vibes.

  19. Thinking says:

    Am I the only one who doesn’t think she’s performative when she’s being herself? She seems quite shy to me, and acting is her outlet.

    Maybe I’m the only one who thinks they seemed relatively normal, but they both gave high profile careers. That seems like enough stress to end things…

    • Kitten says:

      No I completely agree with you. If you’ve ever seen her in an interview she’s really low-key and TBH pretty boring. Not dramatic, attention-seeking or performative AT ALL.

      BIG fan of her acting though–she’s one of the best actresses with the most diverse body of work out there.

    • Normades says:

      No I like Nicole. She seems like a fun person and a good friend. See her girl ship with Naomi Watts

    • jais says:

      I’ve never seen her as super dramatic or look at me. Does she get glam for the red carpets? Well, yeah. And?

    • M says:

      The one Nicole Kidman story I have comes courtesy of my nail tech. Nicole was in town doing a movie and she was asked to do a mani. She said Nicole’s people were like “Don’t talk to her. She just wants to have her nails done in peace.” Nicole sat down and immediately started chatting away, asking about her life and talking about how much she liked living in the South. She was super nice and pleasant. And she paid and left a big tip! So I’ve always had a good impression of Nicole because of that. Now Catherine Zeta Jones, on the other hand, wanted a free mani, made her cancel all her clients for the day bc she had to go to set, kept her waiting for hours, then never showed.

  20. Mrs. Smith says:

    This is a bummer! I liked them together. I believe they spend lots of time apart and that’s gotta be hard. Plus Nicole’s mother passed somewhat recently, the kids are getting close to leaving for college. Lots of life’s big changes happening and he leaves?

    Maybe he wanted to be together more and she had signed on to several projects? He tours a lot. Not saying this is the reason, but band life is real. Maybe he got too close to someone on the tour?

    FWIW, I’ve met him on a few occasions. I don’t know him, but by all accounts he is very kind and loves to work. Super nice guy. I’ve seen her once, but she was also very nice. I hope they can figure it out!

  21. Newt says:

    Frankly, she finally deserves someone taller than her so she doesn’t have to slouch all the time.

  22. Jayna says:

    For years now, I have thought that Nicole never stops working. That usually an actress takes some down time and has more of a balance. I couldn’t get over that she is always interviewing and promoting something new. I am a huge Nicole fan so I follow what she’s up to. If she’s not off away on a set, she’s out promoting another project about to come out. I mean, she literally never goes away.

    Keith is a musician. His bread and butter is literally touring for half the year and working on making music. The guy is just as passionate about writing and performing as Nicole is about acting and producing new projects. And his window as a top touring act is getting smaller because the new crop of music acts takes over. Blake Shelton talked about that when you hit 50. So two driven people in their professions that takes them away from one another A LOT.

    Then you put two children in the mix over the last four years and before the pandemic, which shut everything down for a year.

    I know Nicole said one person is always with the children when the other is away or taken with her and schooled elsewhere, which she admitted is harder now that the kids are teens and don’t necessarily want that. BUT I remember thinking multiple times: When do Keith and Nicole really see each other, except in little spurts, and what kind of strain does that put on a marriage?

    I believe they handled it for a long time and had a good marriage, not the performative marriage they put on, but a solid, loving marriage nonetheless, but it felt like it all ramped up after the pandemic was over when it was work, work, work.

    Neither one has to be the bad guy that fans might want to make it out to be. His addiction issues were 20 years ago. So I don’t get why some throw that out there. Maybe they will work it out down the road. Maybe not.

  23. Sharon says:

    I was shocked to see that. But people can change a lot over two decades. Plus both of them away for months on concert tours & film sets. He probably couldn’t connect with her Hollywood friends nor she with his music friends. I also think he ended an interview not that long ago when they discussed her sex scenes with younger costars & asked him how he felt about it. Even though it’s acting, maybe it bothered him. Her career seems to be at an all time high right now, maybe he felt eclipsed by her success. The reason for him leaving may end up on one of his songs.

  24. ParkRunMum says:

    ummmm. If you’re “fighting to save your marriage,” you are — in essence — just fighting. Some might mistake this for tough love, or personal growth. All it means, is that you are on two totally different pages, of the same book, or, indeed, two totally different books. Best to let it be. Be bewildered, be disaffected, be all you can be, short of needy / micromanaging, hyper critical, clingy…. Be a person. Respect that that person is an individual with separate agency and autonomy. And it might not be meant to be. Be friends, if you can be.

  25. DouchesOfCambridge says:

    I’m surprised they are separated, but there was a recent interview where Keith was asked something about how he feels about Nicole and her sex scenes in movies, and he just flipped at the question and left. So that was a trigger to me. So although I am surprised they are separated, I felt something wasn’t right. And also, Nicole’s mom passed this year, so it probably was a difficult time for her. I hope this separation is not going to mean a divorce for them.

  26. Aidee Kay says:

    I am surprised. I follow her, not him, so I did notice she has been working a lot — feels like nonstop for several years now — which feels like maybe she was avoiding home? But HE is the one who left! And the way this got released, not ” We will always be friends and co-parents, we will always have love for each other…” but a report that he moved out, she doesn’t want the split, she is fighting to stay together…? And releases on a Monday not a Friday? Sounds messy and dramatic. Waiting to learn more….

  27. Amee says:

    Timing wise, I think she wanted to get her girls out of MAGAmerica and Keith didn’t have the same opinion. That’s why she is getting that place and visa in Portugal.

    • Jayna says:

      I doubt it. She stated the girls just started back to school in Nashville. She was at a film festival in Tennessee just this month and said that she and Reese want to bring more productions to Nashville. She filmed Scarpetta Season 1 in Nashville, and it was picked up for a second season by Amazon. So down the line, no date given, she will be filming Season 2 there.

      This is a list of all of the projects she has been working on in 2025 or will be working on this year qne in 2026, or has done and lists the date coming out. She is jam-packed when you look at her work schedule.

      https://thecinemaholic.com/all-upcoming-nicole-kidman-movies-and-tv-shows/

  28. Baz says:

    I think I was more surprised when I first found out they got together than I am to hear they’re getting divorced.

    Nothing against either of them personally – they just seemed like an unlikely couple.

  29. bob says:

    He allegedly dumped his 20-something girlfriend only a couple weeks before he and Nicole announced their engagement. He has also struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years. They have both been accused of affairs during the marriage – but seemed to have an agreement so no one really exposed it too much. Despite all that, they did seem to love each other. I was really hoping she’d find love after Tom Cruise.

  30. MoxieMox says:

    I just want to note that these reports that Keith was the one to leave all seem predicated on the fact that he moved into another home, but that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe the house is in her name. Maybe they worked out that she’d stay in that house and he gets another one of theirs somewhere else (they own lots of property). We have no idea who left who.

    • endlesscircles says:

      In most states, in divorce proceedings, when one spouse vacates the marital property/home, they are considered, in legal terms, abandoning the marriage. He left.

      This one is sad. Nicole loves love. She’s been very open about how much she loves love. In hindsight, I noticed in the majority of their photographs together, she’s draped over him, giving him affection. She’s a lover. He might be shy, but from a body language perspective, from those June 2025 photos at I think a tennis match, he is utterly and completely checked out. I’ve seen that look on men who are done.

      • MoxieMox says:

        That’s not true, and in fact some states require you to live apart for a year before you’re granted a divorce.

  31. Jay says:

    I hope Nicole still has Lenny Kravitz’s number somewhere.

  32. therese says:

    I just feel that if people are showy with their affection, then it is for show. Hence, fake. I don’t doubt that they have true affection for one another and respect, but I have always heard that theirs is a lavender marriage, and thought it was a partnership. I think that happens a great deal in Hollywood, and I hate to see it, in that it must take a lot of energy and whatever. Wish people felt they could just be themselves. But not everyone does. But come on, I wouldn’t have gone there maybe, if they had not been so over the top that it actually drew my attention, and I thought, why are they doing that? It is actually having the opposite effect of what they want. At any rate, I think it was a business deal, a partnership, and their children are older, so they have called it a day. I’m not surprised too much any more.

  33. Megan says:

    I get cheating vibes too, but to me it reads that Keith stumbled on something and bounced. It’s typically the one being cheated on who leaves abruptly once they discover infidelity while the cheater is normally the one who tries to “make it work.” But this is only based on behavior, not facts.

  34. Charlie says:

    New headline from People Magazine, “Nicole Kidman Files for Divorce from Keith Urban After 19 Years of Marriage”

    This is all really sad.

    • Jayna says:

      Wow! But it appears they’ve been secretly separated for almost four months, with him living elsewhere now, and obviously, things were probably not great leading up to the official separation in the beginning of the summer. So while it’s all a surprise to us and felt out of the blue to hear, for them, it is just the date they (or one of them) chose to announce they had been separated all this time with no reconciliation. Once that was announced and digested by the public, she filed.

      It is sad.

    • Kebbie says:

      TMZ is saying their inner circle believes he’s moved on with another woman and that Nicole was shocked.

      • Libra says:

        Even when things are a bit rocky, it’s always a shock to actually hear the words, “there is someone else”. I can believe she maybe suspected it but was shocked to hear it.

  35. Mango says:

    His sobriety was even a point in their prenup, so I wonder if he started drinking again? And that drinking could’ve easily led to unfaithfulness.

  36. Constance says:

    It’s all Meghan’s fault and the Daily Mail will tell us why and how as soon as they make it up.

  37. Alla says:

    Tmz just reported that Nicole filed for divorce. He is cheating 100%

    • Jayna says:

      It appears they have behind the scenes been working out their marital dissolution agreement and signed it as far as all custody and support matters. So they’ve been working on the divorce for quite a while to have this ready and signed.

      Sometimes celebs don’t actually file for divorce until it is all ready to be granted, everything worked out, because it keeps the press away. I imagine their financial side of it will take quite a while, even with prenups. But Nicole filed today.

      • Jayna says:

        To add to my comment above, Keith signed that marital dissolution agreement a month ago, and Nicole signed it a week later. So they’ve definitely been working out the details of their divorce for the last couple of months. I guess it was so easy to hide that they were separated because Nicole was in England for most of the summer until getting back in early September.

  38. Fwiw says:

    Lots of comments about Urban’s strange hair. Maybe, like Kate, he sticks to a wig. Easier than trying to do a typical male style using a rug to cover balding.

    I’ve observed more men than women leaving relationships over lack of time spent together.

  39. Jayna says:

    Interesting. This is an article from around January. Keith has made a lot of changes in his life this year. The statement at the end of this gave me the chills, because it could just as easily relate to Nicole.

    “Country crooner Keith Urban’s good-guy rep took a big hit after he coldly dumped three longtime band members, say insiders, including one who had been with him for decades since the beginning of his career.

    The 57-year-old Somebody Like You singer shocked fans by canning drummer Terence C. Clark, keyboardist Nathan Barlowe and bassist Jerry Flowers — Urban’s band leader for over 25 years.

    Sad Flowers revealed his firing on social media, writing, “It’s with a heavy, but very full heart that after 25 years on stage with Keith Urban, Keith has decided to make a lineup change and I will no longer be in the band.”

    Angry fans immediately blasted Urban’s firing line.
    “This is crap,” says one. Another pens: “Jerry, this is breaking my heart. You are just as much a part of KU as anyone. I go to concerts to see you as much as to see KU.”

    Actress Nicole Kidman’s guitar-strumming husband defended his cold cuts, saying, “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.”

  40. Danilla says:

    I always thought she could do better than Keith, but I was happy she found love after Tom and I thought it was cute they were both Aussies (even if Keith was via NZ) – And I was super happy for her when she had their 2 daughters – who will never shun her – So this makes me kind of sad. I just read that she filed for divorce, which you guys are already talking about, and I was like, oh he cheated…That’s my take, and I hope I’m wrong, especially since I always found the lavender marriage rumor interesting….

  41. Isabella says:

    Musicians are dicey, always on the road, temptation everywhere. I predict a much younger, adoring woman. I notice Nicole is the one staying with the kids. She wanted kids very much so I am glad she got that. She is much smarter than than Keith, going by interviews and the kind of film projects she tackles.

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