“The final words my mama said, which I didn’t know were gonna be the final words… I was going to get on a plane and go back to see her,” Kidman said.
Nicole Kidman is opening up about the loss of her mother.
Janelle Ann Kidman passed away in September just as Kidman was arriving at the Venice Film Festival in September.
The 57-year-old actress sat down with CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend and opened up about how she has been handling her grief. She also shared the final words her mother said to her.
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“The final words my mama said, which I didn’t know were gonna be the final words… I was going to get on a plane and go back to see her,” Kidman said. “And she was like, ‘Maybe wait a minute because I think you just need to take care of yourself right now, Nicky.'”
“So, I’m doing that more,” the Oscar winner continued. “And I say that to other people in the world, and particularly women. I think we tend not to take care of ourselves.”
She then recalled what her grandmother said before she passed away: “Be happy.”
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“And my mom said, ‘Take care of yourself,'” she added, which has resonated with her over the past few months.
“Obviously, I’m an older mother, so I want to be around for a long time for my girls,” Kidman said. “They’re amazing girls, and I’m lucky to have them. So taking care of myself means so that I can take care of them.”
Kidman shares two children, Bella and Connor, with ex Tom Cruise, and two daughters, Sunday and Faith, with husband Keith Urban.
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The Perfect Couple star was at the Venice Film Festival when she found out the tragic news, causing her to leave the event immediately on September, 7.
Halina Reijn — director of Kidman’s new movie Babygirl — accepted the festival’s best actress award on Kidman’s behalf and read a prepared statement from the star.
Kidman said she found out about the death of her “beautiful, brave” mom shortly after arriving in Venice that day, according to the statement read by Reijn.
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“I’m in shock and I have to go to my family,” the statement said. “But this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me. My heart is broken.”
Kidman has remained quiet about her mother’s health in recent years, but revealed to NPR’s Fresh Air podcast in 2022 that she had been staying in Australia to take care of her mom.
“We’re down here primarily to take care of my mother and to have her surrounded by her grandchildren,” she told the podcast at the time.
“So luckily, last — yesterday, even though omicron is raging through this country, we were able to take her into the gallery after hours and show her the Matisse exhibit, which coming from a mother who’s raised me in the arts was very, very — it was soothing balm,” she said.
Janelle Ann Kidman was 84-years-old.
