She was married to Tom Cruise for 11 years before they divorced in 2001.
But Nicole Kidman has said that she and her ex-husband were ‘happy’ in their final years together, despite filming a sexually-charged movie that some people thought reflected their own marriage troubles.
The actress, 53, opened up about working with Cruise, 58, on Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, which was released in 1999 and centred around a married couple dealing with infidelity.
In a rare interview with The New York Times, Kidman said that they ‘loved working’ with the legendary director and enjoyed their lives on set.
She said: ‘We were happily married through that. We’d go go-kart racing after these scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at three in the morning.’
She added: ‘I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I don’t have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I’m not willing to.’
Kidman also dismissed the idea that her character’s speech about being ready to give up everything for a stranger was based on her own feelings.
She said: ‘That fits the narrative that people came up with, but I definitely didn’t see it like that.’
She also revealed that Kubrick had asked them to share their fears about marriage during ‘conversations that the three vowed to keep secret’.
She said: ‘He was interested in really breaking down a relationship. The minutiae of a relationship.’
Kidman and Cruise met on the set of Days of Thunder in 1989 and married on Christmas Eve in 1990.
They adopted two children, Bella, now 27, and Connor, 25, before announcing their separation in February 2001.
Cruise filed for divorce two days later, citing irreconcilable differences.
Kidman later married country singer Keith Urban in 2006 and they have two daughters, Sunday Rose, 12, and Faith Margaret, nine.
Cruise has been married and divorced twice more, to Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes. He has a daughter, Suri, 14, with Holmes.