Nicole Kidman reported engaged to singer born in Whangarei

Nicole Kidman. Picture / Reuters

New Zealand-born country music star Keith Urban is now officially engaged to Oscar-winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman, US showbiz programme Entertainment Tonight reports.

The show said sources close to the Australian stars had confirmed the engagement.

This latest development adds further weight to speculation that Kidman and Urban - who was born in Whangarei in 1967 - are expecting a baby.

Pregnancy rumours began last month when the US People magazine ran a picture of the couple appearing happy, in love and with Urban's hand protectively on Kidman's stomach.

A few weeks before that, People magazine ran a picture of Kidman wearing a diamond ring on her wedding finger while walking through a Boston street with Urban.

Kidman, who split with actor Tom Cruise in 2001 after a decade of marriage, and Urban, whose family moved to Queensland when he was aged six, have reportedly been "inseparable" while US-based Urban was on tour.

Urban, who won entertainer of the year and male vocalist of the year at the recent Country Music Association awards in New York, entertained Kidman's parents to a Thanksgiving dinner with his parents at his home in Nashville at the weekend. The next day, Kidman and her father worked off the stuffing by going for a jog, while Urban and the two mothers went for a stroll and later visited the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.

Kidman's closest friends are said to have expressed concern about the former New Zealander's past.

He has previously said he started doing drugs soon after moving to Nashville in 1992, and told one interviewer about crawling around on his hands and knees, looking for little rocks [of cocaine] at 5 in the morning, drenched in sweat.

But after pulling himself together, he began winning awards three years ago, including the best male vocalist and best entertainer at the US Country Music Association.

Once dubbed by Renee Zellweger as "The Australian Stud" Urban is reported to have charmed Kidman with songs he wrote for her and her children.

- NZPA