Nicole Kidman files for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage

By JONATHAN MATTISE and ANDREW DALTON

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage.

The 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor petitioned on Tuesday to end her marriage to the 57-year-old Grammy winning country singer in a Nashville court. The documents state the couple has undergone “marital difficulties and irreconcilable differences.”

The filings include a marriage dissolution and childcare plan submitted for a judge’s approval. It asks that Kidman be the primary residential parent to the couple’s two teenage daughters. The filing states that neither side will get childcare or spousal support, and that each will keep all the assets that are in their own name, including the copyrights and royalties for their artistic work.

Both raised in Australia, Kidman and Urban met in 2005 at a Los Angeles event honoring Australians and were married in Sydney the following year.

The marriage was the first for Urban and the second for Kidman, who was married to Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001. Kidman also has two older children with Cruise.

Last year at the premiere of the Netflix series “The Perfect Couple,” Kidman told The Associated Press the term didn’t apply to her and Urban.

“You’re heading for trouble if you consider yourselves the perfect couple,” she said. “I’m not a believer in perfect.”

A few months earlier, Urban paid tribute to Kidman, and brought her to tears, when she received the AFI Life Achievement Award.

Urban said she showed him “what love in action really looks like” when his substance abuse problems emerged almost immediately after they wed in 2006.

“Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban said. “Nic pushed through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.”

Kidman’s film roles have included “Days of Thunder,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Moulin Rouge” and “The Hours,” for which she won an Academy Award for playing author Virginia Woolf. She has more recently worked in television, including the series “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “Big Little Lies,” for which she won Emmys as both actor and producer.

Urban has been a major country star since the 1990s, with hits including “Somebody Like You” and “Blue Ain’t Your Color.” He has won four Grammy Awards and more than a dozen Academy of Country Music Awards.

Their split was first reported by TMZ.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles.