Australian actress Nicole Kidman was last night celebrated at the annual Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
In her acceptance speech for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress for her work in the seven-part series Big Little Lies, Kidman thanked her family, her husband Keith Urban, and their two daughters Sunday-Rose, 9 and Faith, 6. She acknowledged survivors and sufferers of domestic abuse. The audience applauded with gusto.
But the ever vocal detail police noticed one apparent omission from Kidman’s speech. Kidman has two other adopted children with former husband Tom Cruise – Isabella, 24, and Connor, 22 – who weren’t mentioned in the thank yous.
"I have two little girls — Sunnie and Faith. And my darling Keith who I asked to help me pursue this artistic path. And they have sacrificed so much for it," the 50-year-old actress told last night's audience.
"I just want my two little girls to have this on their shelf and to look at it and go, 'Every time my mumma didn’t put me to bed it’s because of this — at least I got something!'"
The rumour mill entered panic mode.
nicole kidman couldn't mention her kids with tom cruise because of tom's scientologist beliefs pic.twitter.com/5Cu2AQacDD
Advertisement— juniper ???? (@rcsetico) September 18, 2017
People are freaking out that Nicole Kidman snubbed her adopted kids at the Emmys https://t.co/QNnxwUcWWd pic.twitter.com/Ah7W5DtG47
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) September 18, 2017
Bit strange that Nicole Kidman only thanked/mentioned two of her four kids. #Emmys pic.twitter.com/xCdgRtbEOF
— Siobhán deBarra (@bobbins85) September 18, 2017
Why don't Isabella and Connor get a thank you??
How could Nicole FORGET her other two kids??
Because, of course, it's very important that, when putting on her Mother hat, Kidman must ensure she always says everything that the public expect a Good Mother would say.
But the probable truth is that Isabella and Connor don't need to be thanked. They're adults, and the time they spend with their mother takes on a very different shape now, which doesn't involve her putting them to bed at night.
And that shape might look even more different when your kids are a part of the Church of Scientology.
It's widely known that when Kidman and Tom Cruise separated in 2001, their kids - who had been raised in the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a spokesperson - chose to stay with their father.
In Steve Cannane's book Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia, it's claimed that after Cruise and Kidman's relationship ended, the Church of Scientology tried to turn Kidman's children against her.
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According to the memoir of actress Leah Remini, Troublemaker, Kidman's two children with Tom Cruise consider her a 'suppressive person'.
Remini recalls being in the car with Isabella and Connor, and asking if they had seen their mother recently. "Not if I have a choice," Isabella answered, according to the book. "Our mum is a f*cking SP [suppressive person]."
Perhaps, then, Kidman's decision not to mention Isabella and Connor in her Emmys speech had to with protecting their privacy, and the lives of her two eldest children. Respecting their wishes and their way of life, the way any mother would?
It's possible.
What's more likely, though, is that Kidman didn't mention her two adult children because they simply weren't the kids she was missing out on tucking into bed every night.
Because that would be a bit weird.
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