Nicole Kidman speaks out on controversial Tom Cruise claim

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman pictured together in 1992. Photo / Getty Images

Nicole Kidman has spoken out to clarify her comments that marriage to Tom Cruise gave her "protection" from sexual harassment.

Talking on the Today show on Monday, she explained that wedding such a powerful man, at such a young age, gave her a different experience to most women.

The actress, who was 22 when she married the A-lister, said: "Because I was married at 23 years old, I wasn't going to parties or I wasn't going out a lot. I was pretty much at home.

"I had my first child at 25 and I was a married, I was in a family. So my sense of being in the world was I was working, or I was at home."

According to the DailyMail, Savannah Guthrie asked whether "people were afraid to mess" with her because of Cruise's status. Nicole acknowledged that might have been the case.

"I think when you're married to a very powerful male, I mean, I'm not in a male's mind, but would you?"

And she added: "When I say 'protection,' there is almost like a barrier. A lot of women don't have that. A lot of people in the world don't have that."

Now 51, Nicole made a rare reference to her first marriage in an interview published last week.

"I got married very young, but it definitely wasn't power for me - it was protection,' she explained in an interview with NY Magazine. "I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned."

After the couple split, attitudes towards Nicole changed, she said. "When I came out of it at 32, 33, it's almost like I had to grow up."

Nicole rarely talks about her decade with Cruise, something she said was a deliberate choice, made with her now-husband Keith Urban in mind.

"I'm married now to the man who is my great love, and it almost feels disrespectful," she admitted.

Nicole, who adopted two children with Tom, and had two more with second husband Keith, said she had experienced MeToo moments "since I was little".

However, she said they were not something she would be discussing in an interview.