Nicole Kidman married and divorced Tom Cruise at a young age — and together, the former couple adopted two children, Connor and Isabella. It’s been speculated that Kidman’s reluctance to join the Church of Scientology — of which her ex-husband is a high-ranking member — resulted in the actress becoming estranged from the kids. Through it all, Kidman has stayed tight-lipped about both the church and her two older kids, but in a rare move, Kidman is now opening up her children’s decision to be Scientologists.
Kidman married Cruise in 1990, and the couple adopted their children over the next few years. The marriage was over a decade later. By that point, Cruise had cemented himself as a member of the Church of Scientology. In the 2015 documentary Going Clear, it was claimed that the Church plotted to split up the pair over her lack of involvement with Scientology, and that they attempted to turn Kidman’s kids against her for being a so-called “suppressive person.â€
Speaking with Australia’s Who magazine, Kidman — who also has two young daughters with her husband Keith Urban — opened up about her oldest children, Connor, now 23, and Isabella, now 25. “I’m very private about all that. I have to protect all those relationships,†she told Who. “I know 150 percent that I would give up my life for my children because it’s what my purpose is.â€
Kidman continued of her older children, “They are adults. They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists and as a mother, it’s my job to love them.†She added, “And I am an example of that tolerance and that’s what I believe — that no matter what your child does, the child has love and the child has to know there is available love and I’m open here.â€
The actress — next starring as a mother whose son is sent to religious-based gay conversion therapy in the film Boy Erased — further said, “I think that’s so important because if that is taken away from a child, to sever that in any child, in any relationship, in any family — I believe it’s wrong. So that’s our job as a parent, to always offer unconditional love.â€