Nicole Kidman has given a revealing new interview about her two oldest children. Photo / Getty Images
Nicole Kidman has given a revealing new interview about her two oldest children. Photo / Getty Images
Nicole Kidman has given a rare public statement about her relationship with her two adopted children — and their involvement with Scientology, the religion she left after her divorce from Tom Cruise.
Kidman and Cruise adopted daughter Isabella (now 25) and son Connor (now 23) during their marriage in the 1990s. Since their split in 2001, Kidman has had little public contact with her two adopted children — but as she tells Who magazine in a new interview, it doesn't mean she's not still extremely close to her kids.
"I'm very private about all that. I have to protect all those relationships. I know 150 per cent that I would give up my life for my children because it's what my purpose is," she said.
Surprisingly, she also addressed her children's decision to stay with the Church of Scientology, of which their father is the most famous member, news.com.au reports.
"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 said.
Nicole Kidman and her children Connor (L) and Isabella (R) attend a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat at the Staples Center in 2004. Photo / Getty Images
"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."
Kidman made headlines when she was accused of snubbing her eldest children after failing to mention them in her Golden Globes speech in January this year.
The Oscar-winner spoke lovingly about her two youngest daughters with husband Keith Urban on stage, but raised eyebrows by not acknowledging Connor or Isabella.
"Sunny, Faith, I love you. I'm bringing this home to you babies," she said.
It came months after she made a similar speech at the Emmy Awards in September 2017, again only mentioning her youngest offspring.
Multiple reports suggest that when a Scientologist leaves, they are often cut off from their families and labelled a "suppressive person" or "SP".
Actor Leah Remini, 45, who left Scientology in 2013 after 30 years as a member, reiterated the allegation in her book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood And Scientology.
Nicole left the church before her, and Leah stated that the movie star had been declared an "SP".
Kidman, Cruise and their children in Sydney in 1996. Photo / Getty Images
Remini, whose claims were denied by church leaders, wrote: "While I stared at the dark ceiling at night, unable to sleep, I would say to myself, 'Remember Nicole Kidman'.
"She was declared an SP and left the church, and she's doing OK. Her career is still going, and she has a husband and family … Just remember Nicole Kidman. She left and she's OK."
The closest Kidman had come to talking about her reported estrangement from Connor and Isabella was in 2016 when she was promoting the film Lion, in which she plays an adoptive mother.
Kidman said at the time: "I can see now, for Lion, that it was important to me because I'm a mother with adopted children … This movie is a love letter to my children," she told Town & Country magazine.
This year Kidman has been uncharacteristically open about her "past life" with Cruise in several interviews — just last month she described herself as being "cocooned" during their marriage.
"I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed," she said. "I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it's almost like I had to grow up."
