Keith Urban Said That His Addiction Nearly Blew up His Marriage to Nicole Kidman
His addiction was an issue in the early days of their marriage.
Published Sept. 30 2025, 5:04 p.m. ET
After 19 years of marriage, Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban. The news of the split has naturally left many people wondering what exactly happened, and while it seems like things were rocky for a while, at least according to People, the exact reasons for the divorce are still a bit of a mystery.
A year before the two split, though, Keith told a story about a time early on in their marriage when their relationship almost fractured over his addiction. Here's what we know.
What is Keith Urban's addiction story?
According to The New York Post, in 2024, Keith honored Nicole at the AFI Life Achievement Award Gala and told a story about how his addiction nearly ruined their marriage just months after they got married in 2006.
“We got married in June 2006 and barely four months into our marriage, my addictions that I’d done really nothing about, blew our marriage to smithereens,” he said at the time.
“And I went into the Betty Ford Center for three months. Four months into a marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” he added. “I had no idea what was going to happen to us. And if you want to see what love in action really looks like, give that a whirl."
“Nic pushed through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own and she chose love,” the country singer said. “And here we are tonight, 18 years later.”
Nicole was in attendance with their two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.
“That’s the thing about Nic — she loves life,” he said. “I’ve actually never met anyone who has such a passion for being alive. She knows the importance of expressing feelings, as well. I wasn’t raised like this at all, so our girls are very lucky to be learning from you, baby. I’m learning too.”
Urban appears to be sober now, but dealt with addiction issues prior to his relationship with Nicole and also in its early stages. In 2021, he said that Nicole had even set up an intervention for him at one point during their marriage.
“I caused the implosion of my fresh marriage,” he told Rolling Stone. “It survived, but it’s a miracle it did."
"I was spiritually awoken with her. I use the expression ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction," he continued.
While it's unclear whether addiction had anything to do with their divorce, it's clear that Keith has long felt that his relationship with Nicole was critical to him getting clean.