Nicole Kidman has said she is shocked when she thinks about how young she was when she married Tom Cruise. The former couple tied the knot in 1990, when Nicole was 23 and Tom was 28, and they went on to adopt two 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren together, daughter Isabella in 1992, and son Connor in 1995, before their split in 2001.

Reflecting on their marriage, Nicole told Red magazine: “I was so young when I got married. I look back now and I’m like, ‘What?!’ You look at Taylor Swift, I mean how old is she? She’s 26, I had two kids by the time I was 27 and I’d been married for four years. But that’s what I wanted.”

Of course, now Nicole is happily married to singer Keith Urban. The couple, who recently celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary and have two daughter together, Faith and Sunday Rose, are clearly head over heels in love. But the actress admitted that their marriage was “really up and down for the first three months”.

“We’ve been through a lot for 10 years. And we’re stronger than ever,” she said. “I say that while touching wood, and no way in a boastful way. I just say it with wonder. Absolute wonder.

“When you’re older, you’ve been through things, you’ve made mistakes,” Nicole continued. “So you come into it (a second marriage) still giddy, but wanting it to last. We always consider the ‘us’. We say, ‘Is this going to be good for us?’ It’s the simplest phrase, but it works.”

The Oscar-winner also opened up about her experience of motherhood, which she said is “about the journey”.

“There are going to be incredible peaks and valleys, whether you are an adopting mother or a 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 mother,” she said. “What a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 needs is love.

“It’s not necessarily great for a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 to have an intensely emotional mother. And I don’t want to be a helicopter parent, so I’m trying to… balance the intensity of love. It’s really hard.”