During the early part of her marriage to Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman suffered an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage. Deeply traumatised by this, Nicole and Tom decided to adopt. Nicole's aunt was adopted so she was always open to adoption. She told the Tatler.
Isabella (or Bella) was adopted by Nicole and Tom Cruise in 1992 and her younger brother Connor was adopted in 1995. When the couple split in 2001, the children decided to live with their father and stay devoted to Scientology; a decision respected by Nicole.
Since the divorce, rumours have circulated that Scientology members have worked to estrange her from both children. Nicole received a lot of heat for failing to mention her two oldest kids in award speeches. However, regardless of this, Nicole and the two children have always stated that there is nothing but love between them.
Talking about her movie, Lion, Nicole Kidman had this to say in relation to her own adoption experience;
Isabella, the eldest child of Tom and Nicole is now based in London. In 2015 she tied the knot with husband Max Parker - however, neither Nicole nor Tom were in attendance. Whilst the media speculated that the family were estranged, Bella shut down the claims telling Daily Mail in 2016, "Of course [we talk], they're my parents. Anyone who says otherwise is full of s**t."
The same year, son Connor also put to rest rumours of estrangement, telling Woman's Day: "I love my mum. I don't care what people say, I know that me and mom are solid. I love her a lot."
Nowadays, the pair, who are 30 and 28 respectively, remain largely out of the public eye.
After marrying Keith Urban in 2006, Nicole Kidman gave birth to a daughter in 2008. This was a miracle for both Nicole and Keith. The culprit? The Kununarra Falls in Western Australia. I mean who would've thought? Nicole was filming her movie Australia when the cast decided to go for a dip in the waterfalls. According to Nicole, she wasn't the only one who got lucky, seven babies were conceived while making the film and now they call it the 'fertility waters'.
The beautiful baby girl was named Sunday Rose at Nicole's father's suggestion to name her after the Australian patron of the arts, Sunday Reed. Ironically, prior to getting married, both Nicole and Keith hated Sundays. She said; "When we were both alone, before we met each other, Sunday was the day we dreaded most, because when you don't have someone in your life Sundays can be really lonely."
But when they got married, they went from hating Sundays to absolutely loving them.
Nicole told Oprah a little after giving birth: "That's our favourite day because if you're happy and you've got your family around you, then Sunday's a beautiful day."
Nicole and Keith have another daughter, Faith Margaret, whom they welcomed through a surrogate. A close friend of Nicole and Keith said that Faith was an obvious name choice for the couple as they "never gave up faith that they would have another child together". The couple decided to keep the pregnancy a secret to protect their surrogate.
Nicole explained during an interview with 60 Minutes, "She was the most wonderful woman to do this for us. And we were in a place of desperately wanting another child and this opportunity arose for us. And I couldn't get pregnant and we wanted another baby. I get emotional just talking about it cause I'm so grateful to her."
Nowadays, Nicole and Keith remain vigilant in keeping their daughter's privacy, and although fans don't get too much of an inside look into the family's everyday life it's clear their children are following in their footsteps! Faith, 12, is a musician just like her father, whilst Sunday, 14, has expressed an interest in acting.
From struggling to conceive to now parenting-how many kids? Four! Nicole Kidman has gone through a motherhood roller coaster. "I think because I've experienced motherhood in so many different ways," she explained. "I've experienced adoption, birthing a child, and I've experienced surrogacy. I'm like, when it comes to it, I just wanna be a mama."
"I would love to have had more", the actress said, when asked how many children she would want. "But I'm happy to have the family I have".