It’s no secret that Nicole Kidman has had the busiest year of her incredibly long career, the last four months of which she’s spent grieving the loss of her beloved mother Janelle.
Now the exhausted actress is giving in to her mother’s final wish for her to slow down, with an insider revealing she’s planning to take a break from acting once awards season is done.
“The final words my mama said to me, I was gonna get on a plane, and she said, ‘Maybe wait a minute, because you just need to take care of yourself, Nicky,’” the actress, 57, said recently. “I’m doing that more… we take care of everybody else but the last person is here.”
The source says of her decision, “Nicole will always be haunted by her mother’s words and she’s finally ready to heed her advice. She’s been working hard ever since she was 16.”
And no one is more pleased about her decision than husband Keith Urban, who is believed to have been pleading with his wife to slow down and just enjoy being present with him and their daughters, Sunday, 16, and Faith, 14.
PUSHING HERSELF
“Nicole did feel a need to keep busy to keep her mind off the pain,” the insider notes. “But coming into the new year, she’s had some big heart to hearts with everyone in her family.”
The plan now, after a relaxing festive holiday back in Australia with her extended family, is to continue her winning award streak and go out on a career high soon after the Golden Globes, where she’s nominated for the 17th time – this time for her sultry role in Babygirl.
“Nicole still has a few projects she’s already committed to, but she’s looking at a short-term hiatus and eventually semi-retirement, where she can dip in and out for a special project, like Meryl [Streep] does,” the insider explains.
“There have already been a few delays in some of her TV projects, and there aren’t many people unwilling to wait for Nic. She’s hoping to wrangle a six-month break.”
Even without the stress of this year, walking away from acting has been in the back of Nicole’s mind for years. In the recent CBS interview, she even admitted she had seriously considered retiring after her first daughter, Sunday, was born in 2008.
THE QUIET LIFE CALLS
“We were living on a farm, and that’s when my mother said, ‘I wouldn’t give up completely. Keep a finger sort of in it’,” Nicole said. “And I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m done now. I’m done.’ She’s going, ‘Just listen to me. Keep moving forward. Not saying that you have to do it to the level you’ve been doing it, but I wouldn’t give it up completely.’”
Nicole followed her mother’s wise advice then, and continued to have a prosperous career. But now she’s ready to let her late mother guide her through this next phase, with her family close by and watching Hollywood from a distance.
“She’ll be back, of course,” the source says. “She gets offered roles that are just too good to turn down, but for now the focus is getting some quality family time in. The girls are excited for Nic to just be mum.”
As is Nicole, whose hiatus was driven by her love for her daughters.
“I’m an older mother, so I want to be around for a long time for my girls,” she says. “They’re amazing girls, and I’m lucky to have them. So taking care of myself means I can take care of them.”
