Nicole Kidman Opens Up About Mothers Death

emotionally recalled the 'harrowing' moment that she learned of her mother's death while attending the 2024 .

The 58-year-old actress - who recently - opened up about the topic while speaking at HISTORYTalks 2026 in Philadelphia on Saturday.

The Oscar winner's mom Janelle - just hours before she accepted the Volpi Cup award at the ceremony for her performance in Babygirl.

'I'd won best actress at Venice Film Festival. This seems to be such a common theme through my life,' she expressed to the crowd inside the Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center, per The Hollywood Reporter. 

'I was about to go on stage, and I found out my mother had died,' she remembered. 

Kidman explained that she quickly returned to her hotel room in Venice and had been left 'completely devastated.' 

The actress got candid about the struggles she faced because her late mom had been 'so much a part of my existence, so the idea of being there at that particular moment was harrowing.'

Kidman added, 'I remember getting into a boat in the canal, and literally at night trying to find my way to the airport, and then turning around and going, I can't even do this.'

'I am in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her, she shaped me, she guided me, and she made me,' Kidman said; seen with mother Janelle and father Antony in 2003