After a heartbreaking few months in which she lost her beloved father Dr Antony Kidman and her sister’s ex-husband Angus Hawley, Nicole, 46, is keeping those nearest and dearest as close as she can.
The actress posted this stunning shot of her celebrating her niece Lucia’s 17th birthday, with the caption: “Love you Lu, happy sweet seventeen. xxmic”
Gorgeous Lucia is the daughter of Nicole’s younger sister, Antonia and Angus, who tragically died in April this year from a suspected heart attack.
Just six months earlier, Nicole and Antonia lost their dad, also from a suspected heart attack, while he was visiting Antonia in Singapore.
Nicole and musician husband Keith Urban rushed back to Australia to support Antonia as she helped Lucia and her other children Sybella, twins Hamish and James mourn their father.
Antonia is also mother to other boys from her second marriage, Nicholas and Alexander.
In another sign of their family’s closeness, Lucia travelled to London to see Nicole in a performance of Photograph 51. Aunt and niece were pictured leaving the Noel Coward Theatre, holding hands.
Keith has also been visiting London every chance he gets from breaks from his long-running judging role on American Idol.
He was in England for the sell-out premiere and back again for his 48th birthday celebration on October 26. The loved-up pair, who notched their ninth wedding anniversary in June, has regularly been spotted around London, most recently mingling with shoppers at a local farmers market where they shopped for baguettes.
Some reports criticised Nicole for not attending her daughter Isabella Cruise’s recent wedding to IT consultant Max Parker. But neither Nicole her former husband Tom Cruise was there because they did not want media attention to overshadow the event.
Nicole is said to have given her wholehearted blessing to the union and even helped with the preparations.
Meanwhile, Photograph 51 is proving a wonderful boon to Nicole’s career.
In her first appearance on stage since The Blue Room 17 years ago, Nicole plays Rosalind Franklin, the woman who cracks the DNA code and in doing so discovers the secret to life.
“Ms Kidman, who turns Franklin’s guardedness into as much a revelation as a concealment of character, is pretty close to perfection,” raves the New York Times.
