Nicole Kidman clarifies claim she was 'protected' during Tom Cruise marriage

NICOLE Kidman has clarified her recent comments about her marriage to Tom Cruise protecting her from sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Earlier this month, Kidman, now 51, told New York Magazine’s The Cut, “I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection … I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up.”

In a new interview this week, the actress clarified what she’d meant about being “protected”.

“I’m saying because I was married at 23 years old, I wasn’t going to parties, or I wasn’t going out a lot,” she explained on the US Today show. “I was pretty much at home. I had my first child at 25 and I was married. I was in a family so, my sense of being in the world was I was working or I was at home.”

Kidman added: “I think when you’re married to a very powerful man, I mean, I’m not in a male’s mind but …. when I said ‘protection,’ I think there’s almost like a barrier a lot of women don’t have — that a lot of people in the world don’t have.”

Kidman and Cruise were married from 1990 to 2001 and share adopted daughter Isabella, now 25, and son Connor, now 23.

Though the Boy Erased star has significant industry clout, she said hers pales in comparison to that of her ex.

“Am I able to be listened to at times? Yes,” she said. “Am I able to instigate change? Sometimes. In regards to my own industry, can I get films made? Not all the time. Sometimes, and on a particular budget. So do I feel like I have power in the sense of dominance or controlling things? Not at all.”

Kidman also reiterated that she’s reluctant to discuss her previous marriage because she’s head over heels for Keith Urban, with whom she tied the knot in 2006.

“I also don’t like discussing exes and all of that because I’m married,” Kidman said. “I’m very happily married. I have two little girls and I think it’s almost disrespectful, one, to Tom, and disrespectful to Keith, so I try to stay in the here and now.”

This story originally appeared in the New York Post and is republished here with permission,

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