Nicole Kidman: I felt I should be seen & not heard while married to Tom Cruise

Nicole Kidman has said it’s no surprise that she only became to receive critical acclaim after her split from Tom Cruise.

A year after splitting from Tom, Nicole scored an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for her performance in Moulin Rouge!, followed by further BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for The Others and finally winning trophies at all three awards the following year for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours.

She told Glamour magazine recently that she felt she could only shine once she’d moved on from the high profile relationship: “I felt I became a star only by association. I didn’t think [my early movies] were very good, which is why I would always cower in the background.

“I thought, ‘I don’t deserve to be here’. We would go to the Oscars and I would think, I’m here to support him.

“I felt it was my job to put on a beautiful dress and to be seen and not heard.”

Since the couple’s divorce was finalised in 2001, both have remarried: Nicole to Keith Urban in June 2006 and Tom to Katie Holmes in November that year.