Nicole Kidmanhas described how she was 'completely devastated' in Venice when she learned of her mother's death while alone at the film festival, in a moment that came to symbolise the unravelling of both her family life and her marriage to Urban. Speaking in Philadelphia on Saturday 18 April, theBabygirlstar recalled being told that her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, had died just as she was preparing to collect a major acting prize.

Janelle Kidman died on 7 September 2024 at the age of 84 after what was described as a long battle with illness, though no specific cause of death has been made public. Kidman had travelled to the Venice Film Festival, where she won the Best Actress award for her performance as Romy inBabygirl. The celebration, which on paper looked like another career high for the Oscar winner, instead became what she now describes as the night that fractured her sense of safety.

In her appearance at HISTORYTalks in Philadelphia, hosted by Hoda Kotb, Kidman said she had been feeling 'ecstatic' moments before everything changed, before receiving the call about her mother.

'I was about to go onstage and I found out my mother had died and I went right back to the room in Venice, got into bed and was completely devastated and thought, I do not know how I'm gonna move forward or function now,' she said.

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Kidman described her mother as 'so much a part of my existence,' suggesting that the timing of the news, colliding with professional recognition, felt almost unbearable. She said 'the idea of being there at that particular moment was parole,' an awkward, haunting word that hints at feeling stranded between worlds, neither free to celebrate nor able to grieve properly.

Once the initial shock eased enough for her to think, Kidman tried to leave Venice and reach her family. She recalled scrambling to get out of the city in the middle of the night, desperate to be anywhere but trapped in a gilded hotel room.

'I remember getting into a boat in the canal, literally at night, trying to find my way to the airport, and then turning around going, I can't even do this,' she recalled. Disoriented and exhausted, she abandoned the attempt and returned to bed.

There was a detail she lingered on. Her husband was not there. Her children were not there. The actor who had flown in to celebrate a career triumph was suddenly, starkly alone.

'Then I went back to bed. And I was alone. My husband wasn't there, my children weren't there. I was there to win an award, which should've been a beautiful thing. That there is the contrast of life,' theScarpettastar told the audience, in what appeared to be a pointed reference to Urban.

Source: International Business Times UK