Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Nicole Kidman is a busy mom to mom to Isabella, 16, and Connor, 13 (her children with ex-husband Tom Cruise), and now Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, five months. As one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year 2008, Kidman shares:
GLAMOUR: Important things first: Who does Sunday Rose look like, you or Keith?
NICOLE KIDMAN: Keith! It’s fine by me, having a little Keith-ette. When he goes away, I can look at her and see him.
GLAMOUR: You’re almost swooning! Are you happier now than you’ve ever been?
NK: Yes. But “happy” isn’t an all-encompassing-enough word. I’m in a place of gratitude and humility. I don’t take any of it for granted. I touch wood every day. The journey of life—we all go through it: You have love, you lose love, you find new love. To have love again is a beautiful thing.
GLAMOUR: Are you more in touch with your needs now?
NK: Yes. I’ve given a lot to my work, and I’m not willing to give as much to that anymore. At this time in my life, I want to be giving to my relationships. And out of that, whatever work you do prospers because you have more to give. [Pauses.] There’s something very primal about giving birth. It puts you in a state of being very raw.
GLAMOUR: What do you mean?
NK: I can’t bear to be separated from Sunday Rose. That’s why I haven’t yet gotten a daytime nanny, but at some stage I probably will have one.
GLAMOUR: I have a feeling that this gratitude, and what you’ve learned about gaining closeness through surviving painful experiences, has something to do with your work with UNIFEM.
NK: The accumulation of experience gives you a debt in terms of compassion. I am very fortunate, and I feel dedicated to giving back to other women. Wherever I am now, I make sure I visit a women’s shelter. But I don’t want to do it in a frivolous way.
GLAMOUR: What has been the most touching experience?
NK: The way those women [in the shelter in Kosovo] told their stories—with such dignity, yet their lives were so ravaged. They’d been beaten, raped, ostracized. And they were so grateful to just have somebody to share their stories with.
GLAMOUR: What did you learn from that intense period (after Kidman’s divorce from Tom Cruise)?
NK: How to stand on my own two feet. I had to find my own identity, and my own reason for being here, and it couldn’t be because of another person.
GLAMOUR: What advice would you give to your younger self? If you could go back to the inadequate-feeling wife of the superstar, what would you tell her?
NK: Be kind to yourself.
GLAMOUR: What would you tell the young woman devastated by divorce?
NK: The sun always rises tomorrow, and through this shall come light.
GLAMOUR: You’re so good at giving advice on the basis of your life lessons; what can you tell our readers?
NK: As a woman now, I want to share things. I have girlfriends in their twenties, and I say, “Ask me anything. You can learn from the things I did wrong, and you can learn from the things you think I’m doing right. Take whatever you want and make it your own.” So: Have no regrets. Every relationship leads you to where you’re meant to be. Learn to be comfortable with being alone. Learn to be comfortable with saying no to people; we put everybody else before ourselves. Read great literature; don’t get all your information from TV. Define your moral code—nobody else is going to give you that. Find it yourself. Keep asking questions, keep challenging. You don’t have to conform. Rebellion creates character. And, as my mother always said to me, “Don’t let anyone break your spirit!”
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Source: Glamour
















