'We're almost twins': The woman standing by Nicole Kidman's side as she navigates divorce from Keith Urban

When it was announced this week that the 19-year marriage of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban was over, reports soon emerged one person was by her side.

Kidman's only sibling, younger sister Antonia, was described as her "rock" during the breakdown of the Hollywood star's second marriage.

Antonia is currently with Nicole in Nashville, Tennessee, where they were seen hiking together this week after news broke that she had filed for divorce from Urban.

Sadly, it is not the first time they have provided each other with support during both the good times and bad, with the two providing a shoulder to cry on through their respective divorces, and the deaths of their parents and a former spouse.

Antonia Kidman was born in Melbourne, Australia, on July 14, 1970, just three years after her parents Antony and Janelle welcomed their first child Nicole.

The family later relocated to Sydney, where they sisters grew up in Longueville on the North Shore.

Antonia was just 13 when Nicole made her film debut in the 1983 film Bush Christmas. This was followed by the TV show Five Mile Creek and a second film also released in 1983, BMX Bandits. 

But just as her career was taking off, their mother Janelle was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Nicole put her career on hold to learn massage and help care for their mother. It also marked the first time the sisters were united by tragedy.

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After Janelle recovered, Nicole left school at 16 and threw herself into her career, with roles in films Windrider and Emerald City before her breakthrough part in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm led Hollywood to come calling.

She was soon jetting off to LA, where she landed a role opposite Tom Cruise in the film Days of Thunder.

After falling in love on set in 1989, the two married at Cruise's home in Telluride, Colorado, with Antonia among a small group of guests who reportedly attended the nuptials, which took place on Christmas Eve.

Despite living on separate continents, the two remained close.

Antonia and their mother Janelle raced to the US when Nicole and Cruise adopted their first child, Isabella, soon after her birth in December 1992.

Nicole was her younger sister's biggest supporter as she embarked on her own career in the media, starting in 1991 with an editorial assistant role and later fashion editor for MODE Brides before she joined the Nine Network in 1994 as a researcher on shows such as This Is Your Life, Weddings and Today.

Keen to work on air and not getting the break she was after in Sydney, she became an on-air reporter at NBN in Newcastle, in regional NSW then later joined Foxtel's FOX Entertainment News.

In February 1996, it was Nicole's turn to play bridesmaid when Antonia wed Angus Hawley in North Sydney.

Among the attendees at the wedding, which made the front cover of Aussie magazines, was Cruise and their two children, Isabella and her younger brother Connor, whom they also adopted.

When news broke that one of Hollywood's best-known couples had separated in February 2001, Antonia and their mother Janelle again rushed to the US to be by the side of a heartbroken Nicole, who was blindsided by Cruise's actions, according to court papers filed by her lawyers at the time.

During the years she was single, Nicole often relied on her sister's support.

She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020, "When I was alone, when I was single, I think [fame] was much harder.

"I was lucky because my sister would come. I remember her flying to Cannes [in 2001] because it's frightening walking up that red carpet with all that scrutiny, feeling very insecure and not quite sure where to go or how to survive."

Meanwhile, Antonia and Angus welcomed four children during their marriage before they too split in 2007, when their youngest child was just months old.

This time, it was Nicole's turn to support her sister through her marriage break-up.

Both sisters went on to remarry. Nicole wed singer Keith Urban in Sydney's Manly in June 2006, with her sister by her side.

Meanwhile, Antonia married businessman Craig Marran in April 2010.

Both sisters had more children; Nicole and Urban welcomed Sunday in 2008, and Faith in 2010, While Antonia and Marran have two sons together; Nicholas, who was born in 2010 and Alexander, who arrived two years later.

But their happiness was short-lived. In 2014, while visiting Antonia and her family in Singapore, Antonia and Nicole's father Antony died suddenly after suffering a fatal heart attack.

Antonia told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020 she was the one who had to ring her sister with the news.

"I remember ringing her and telling her what had happened… she was feeling it, and experiencing it and [I had] to stay, perhaps, measured because you're battling through just the practicalities of everything, rather than hearing something where you've got time and the unknown."

Then just a year later, tragedy struck again when Antonia's ex-husband Angus Hawley also died suddenly of a suspected heart attack.

While Hawley and Antonia were divorced, they were committed co-parents of their four children.

Antonia told The Sydney Morning Herald her bond with her sister was like no other.

"Nicole will say things to me that I don't know whether anyone else will say, or I won't listen to from anyone else. And not things you'd immediately think of, not Dad's death, or Angus's death, but perhaps other things; she'll help me navigate situations."

They were again forced to lean on each other when their mother Janelle also died suddenly in September 2024, with Nicole forced to flee the Venice Film Festival and fly back to Australia.

They even made a joint statement on Instagram thanking the public for their support.

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The two are doting aunts to each other's children.

In fact, when Kidman came to Australia to film Nine Perfect Strangers during the 2020 COVID lockdown, her sister and Antonia's six children joined her and they lived all together in a rented house.

Nicole told Marie Claire Australia in 2020 she simply asked her sister for help and she was there.

"I rang Ant and asked her to move in with the girls and she did, and brought along her kids," she said.

"That's special. This extended family where you're all raising each other's kids together."

Nicole told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time, "If you have a sister, as a woman it's such a blessing because there's this closeness where you can really delve into another woman with safety.

"We're almost twins and we've been through a lot. I showed up for her and she showed up for me. That's a lovely thing to have."

That same year, Kidman told WSJ Magazine she and her sister are so close they even have their own way of communicating.

"My sister and I have this language that we can speak so we can be understood in a crowd, and nobody can understand us," she said.

"It was really helpful when we were at parties, and we had our boyfriends – we would be able to use our language, and they'd all be like, 'What?' It's a really good tip for all the sisters out there."

Antonia went on to have a successful TV hosting career before going back to university while living in Singapore.

She has since launched a new career as a family lawyer – something that will no doubt come in handy as her older sister navigates her divorce from Urban.

Antonia has been beside her sister's side during her marital woes and since the news broke.

Just overnight, photos emerged of Antonia on a hike with her sister near her home in Nashville, with the two at times walking arm in arm.

"Nicole's sister has been a rock, and the entire Kidman family has come together to support one another," a source told People earlier this week.

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