Nicole Kidman realised how "lonely" she was following her Oscar win.

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

The 'Genius' star was inspired to find a man to spend her life with when she realised she didn't have "anyone to share" her Academy Award with.

Speaking at a Q&A session at the BFI London Film Festival, she said: "Winning the Oscar was a turning point, but not in terms of my life as an actor, because it was incredibly validating, but it actually symbolised loneliness to me because I didn't have anyone to share it with at that stage in my life. I was like, 'Wow, this means I need to get my act together and I want to fall in love' so it was weird."

Meanwhile, the 49-year-old actress - who has Sunday, eight, and Faith, five, with her husband Keith Urban, and Connor, 21, and Isabella, 23, with her ex-spouse Tom Cruise - previously opened up about her parenting skills, admitting she is trying hard not to be "intensely emotional".

She said: "It's not necessarily great for a child to have an intensely emotional mother. And I don't want to be a helicopter parent so I'm trying to...balance the intensity of the love. It's really hard."

Nicole and Keith have just celebrated their 10 year anniversary and she feels their marriage is stronger than ever.

She added: "That's really big for us. It was really up and down for the first three months. We've been through a lot for ten years. And we're stronger than ever. I say that while touching wood, and no way in a boastful way. I just say it with wonder. Absolute wonder ...

"When you're older, you've been through things, you've made mistakes. So you come into [a second marriage], still giddy, but wanting it to last. We always consider the 'us'. We say, 'Is this going to be good for us?' It's the simplest phrase, but it works."

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