In the days following Nicole Kidman’s separation from Keith Urban, an old late-night TV clip has captured the internet’s attention once again. The moment in question? Her unforgettable 2001 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where she delivered one of the most memorable lines about her divorce from Tom Cruise.
It was August 2nd, 2001, and Kidman was there to promote her psychological thriller The Others. But Letterman, never one to shy away from the personal, opened with a surprisingly direct question: “I heard you’re getting divorced, how’s that going?”
What followed was a masterclass in grace under pressure. After some back-and-forth about whether she’d even show up if things weren’t okay (she said she probably would anyway), Kidman dropped the line that would echo through pop culture for decades: “Well, I can wear heels now.” The smirk that accompanied those six words said everything. The audience erupted in applause, and even Letterman couldn’t help but laugh.
The subtext was obvious to anyone paying attention. Cruise stands at 5’7″, while Kidman is 5’11”. Throughout their decade-long marriage, which ended officially in 2001, the height difference had been a persistent topic of tabloid fascination.
Now, twenty-four years later, that clip is making the rounds again. The timing is bittersweet. On September 29th, news broke that Kidman and Urban were separating after nineteen years of marriage. She filed for divorce the next day in Nashville, citing irreconcilable differences and listing September 30th as their date of separation.
According to sources close to the situation, Kidman didn’t want the marriage to end. “She has been fighting to save the marriage,” one insider shared, adding that her sister Antonia and the entire Kidman family have rallied around her during this difficult time.
The split apparently wasn’t a complete shock to those in their inner circle. Urban had quietly set up his own place, and friends say the couple had been living separately for some time. “Their lives were moving in different directions,” a source explained, noting that people close to Urban felt the split was “kind of inevitable.”
Kidman and Urban married in June 2006 in a romantic ceremony in Sydney. Together they share two daughters: Sunday Rose, seventeen, and Faith Margaret, fourteen. Kidman also has two adult children from her marriage to Cruise—Bella, thirty-two, and Connor, thirty.
Looking back at that 2001 Letterman interview, there’s something poignant about watching it now. Kidman had just emerged from one major Hollywood divorce, and when Letterman asked how things were, she simply said, “Things are fine. It’s fine,” before playfully turning the tables on him about his own divorce history.
She had no way of knowing then that she’d find love again with the country music star she’d meet at a Hollywood event in 2005. Or that nearly two decades later, she’d be navigating the end of another marriage, this time with two teenage daughters and a life built between Nashville and Australia.
The viral resurgence of that old clip speaks to something deeper than just internet nostalgia. It’s a reminder that even in our darkest moments, wit and grace can carry us through. And sometimes, a well-timed one-liner is worth a thousand words.
