News that Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and country singer Keith Urban’s picture-perfect 19-year marriage had suddenly ended came like a bolt from the blue and was followed by lurid speculation.
Had the greasy-haired, unknown, diminutive country singer Keith, 57 to Nicole’s 58, moved on with a much younger woman? What about rumours he is now loved up with his adoring 25-year-old guitarist Maggie Baugh, who he’s been serenading on stage?
Was Nicole really ‘blindsided’ by the sudden end of their apparently idyllic marriage?
Who knows – but what I do know is that Nicole is one of the world’s most successful stars, who’s been spending months away from hubby filming her increasingly erotic movies and TV series.
I also know from bitter personal experience that when the woman is the biggest breadwinner – as I was with my former husband – and when she is always away at work, choppy waters lie ahead. That his solace is usually found in the arms of a submissive nobody and who repeats on loop how wonderful he is and how awfully neglectful his far more successful wife was.
Men’s egos are as fragile as a teardrop. The fact that Nicole is worth $250 million off her own back will have been a constant reminder of Keith’s lack of success as he has floated in and out of drug and drink rehab.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have split after 19 years together
She is facing what many successful women, myself included, have – being abandoned by a pathetic mid-life crisis bloke who feels diminished by our achievements.
Nicole is a devoted parent and brilliant actress who put her career before her useless husband. I’m firmly in her camp – but it was always going to end in tears.
Having been forced to quit her dream job on Strictly Come Dancing after fracturing her ankle, Dani Dyer is distraught and can’t face leaving home for fear of being swamped by well-wishers. ‘I need to grieve for it,’ she moans. Oh, do get over yourself Dani. It’s a dance show, not a cancer diagnosis.
Top balancing act
Amal and George Clooney attend the Jay Kelly red carpet during 63rd New York Film Festival
Amal Clooney arrived for the premiere of husband George’s latest movie, Jay Kelly, looking more glamorous and sophisticated than any woman has a right to, getting the balance just right between showcasing her lovely long legs but covering her fulsome breasts. A lesson in elegance yet to be learnt by many a famous man’s wife – and, yes, I am thinking of Mrs Bazookas Bezos.
Hilarious of Prince William, as he was presenting Oscar winner and Slow Horses star Gary Oldman with a knighthood, to say what we’re all thinking: ‘I just want to give you a good wash.’
Oldman, who plays the dishevelled leader of a group of MI5 agents in the Apple TV+ series, remarked touchingly: ‘This compares to nothing else, it’s a singular event. I thought the Oscars was a big deal but, no disrespect to the Academy, it sort of pales in comparison to this,’ adding, ‘I think I’ve scrubbed up OK today.’
And indeed you did Gary, without a single burp or scratch of your crotch.
Westminster Wars
- Unwise of Keir Starmer to use in his speech the rallying cry from William Hague in 2001 – ‘we are all in it together’. Hague was my boss back then and I told him it was a terrible idea as it sounded like ‘we’re all in the s*** together’. He disagreed – and quit as Tory leader the day after the speech.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood derided Reform supporters as ‘heirs to the skinheads and P***-bashers of old’. Starmer claimed Nigel Farage’s policies were racist and that he was ‘the enemy of the people’. Abit like Joe Biden calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’, and Hillary Clinton labelling them a ‘basket of deplorables’. Look where that got them.
Fashion editors gushed over new Dior boss Jonathan Anderson’s first collection, for which he explained he ‘wanted to create something that will engage lots of different kinds of people’.
A model walks for the Dior Spring/Summer 2026 collections in Paris
Judging by this daft ‘showstopper’, that includes pirates and Darth Vader impersonators.
Heartfelt sympathy for Formula 1’s bereft Lewis Hamilton as he says goodbye to his beloved 12-year-old bulldog Roscoe. We had two bulldogs as kids, bought by my Dad to protect us all while he was working the late shift. They were so fiercely protective, they sometimes wouldn’t even allow Dad into the house.
Don’t vilify gentle souls
The killing of two Jewish worshippers in Manchester is a heartbreaking reminder that anti-Semitism is still rife in this country. How unspeakable that since Hamas’s October 7 massacre it is British Jews who have been targeted.
I live in an area of London where the large Jewish community also reside in fear, and where a young mum no longer feels safe taking her boys for a walk in the park. Yes the situation in Gaza is horrendous, but these gentle folk do not deserve this hatred.
Snowflakes versus cupcake ‘trauma’
Jolly japes as Lorraine Kelly strips off. Calendar Girls-style, holding two humungous buns with cherries on to protect her modesty for National Check Your Boobs Day. She jokes that her TV show team might have been ‘traumatised seeing her in her birthday suit’.
Lorraine Kelly for National Check Your Boobs Day
Well done, Lor, for promoting such a good cause. But watch out for Gen Z snowflakes taking time off for mental health issues and heading for the industrial tribunal claiming PTSD because the boss stripped off.
Princess Anne this week made a surprise visit to Ukraine and a children’s memorial for the hundreds of youngsters who have died since the Russian invasion, where she laid a teddy bear once hugged by her daughter Zara.
A perfect act of compassion and, given the diminishing number of working royals, a reminder we should cherish Anne, still going full tilt at 75.
My moggie Ted is appalled that it has taken the Cats Protection charity to point out the bleeding obvious: that cats are not dogs and get very stressed if owners put them in a harness for a walk. I tried this once with Ted, and before even leaving the house he was out of the harness, hissing and biting me, then peeing on it for good measure.
Julia Roberts is out promoting her movie After The Hunt wearing a mini-dress emblazoned with pictures of its director Luca Guadagnino.
It takes sucking up to the boss to a whole new level.
Hope this Taylor has better luck
For some unfathomable reason the recently engaged Taylor Swift dedicates a song on her new album The Life Of A Showgirl to Elizabeth Taylor, using the Hollywood legend’s life in the public glare as a metaphor for her own.
Let’s hope not, as Liz was married eight times and never found happiness after the death of her one true love, Richard Burton.
