Nicole Kidman has shared details regarding one of the most devastating moments of her life: finding out about her mother’s abrupt demise just moments before taking the best actress award for “Babygirl” at the festival in Venice in September 2024. The 58-year-old Australian actress shared the deeply personal experience whilst speaking at HISTORYTalks 2026, hosted by the History Channel, recounting how she learned of the tragedy whilst preparing to take to the stage. What was meant to be a victorious moment celebrating her acclaimed performance transformed into an heartbreaking situation, compelling her to process her mourning by herself in a Venice hotel room, without her husband or children by her side. The candid revelation sheds light on how the Oscar-winning actress has dealt with the death of her mother, Janelle, who died at the age of 84.
A Moment of Victory Turned to Grief
Kidman discussed the surreal contrast between her career success and profound grief on that evening in September in Venice. “I’d won best actress at the Venice Film Festival. This seems to be such a recurring pattern through my life,” she noted during her remarks at HISTORYTalks 2026. The actress explained that she was just about to stepping onto the stage when the word of her mother’s death reached her. Rather than marking her win, Kidman ended up retreating to her hotel room, overwhelmed by grief and unable to process the scale of her loss whilst alone in a foreign city.
The mental strain of learning of such devastating news at that specific moment proved remarkably distressing for Kidman. She recalled trying to depart from Venice immediately, getting onto a boat in the canal in the dead of night in a urgent attempt to get to the airport. However, the heaviness of her loss became overwhelming, and she abandoned the journey, returning to her hotel bed where she remained alone with her anguish. “My husband was not present. My children were absent,” Kidman reflected, highlighting the intense solitude she experienced during this pivotal moment in her life.
- Received news of mother’s death just before accepting award
- Withdrew to hotel suite alone without family presence
- Tried to depart from Venice but was too emotionally drained to continue
- Later identified this ordeal as evidence of her ability to endure
By myself in the night in Venice
The hours after her mother’s death became a blur of intense feelings and loneliness. Kidman found herself confined to her hotel room in Venice, grappling with the abrupt death whilst separated from her nearest relatives. The city that had just celebrated her career success now felt like a prison of grief. She characterised the experience as profoundly lonely, unable to share her devastation with those she loved most. The contrast between the glamour of the film festival and the stark, unvarnished suffering of bereavement created a strange and profoundly destabilising experience that would substantially transform how she perceived both success and grief.
What contributed to the situation even more demanding was the complete absence of her network of support. Keith Urban, her husband, was not present in Venice, nor were her two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret. Kidman was obliged to handle her mourning entirely alone, without the warmth of physical affection or the comfort of known voices. This solitude would subsequently emerge as a pivotal moment in her comprehension of her own strength and capacity to endure. The actress would ultimately acknowledge that enduring this given night—grieving in solitude whilst contending with both victory and heartbreak—showcased an inner strength she had not fully recognised until that heartbreaking moment.
The Desperate Trip to the Terminal
In her attempt to flee the stifling atmosphere of her hotel room, Kidman resolved to leave Venice at once. She got on a boat in the waterway, making her way through the murky Venetian waterways late at night in a frantic effort to reach the airport. The physical act of leaving felt necessary, a means to distance herself from the place where she’d received the most devastating news. However, as she travelled through the nighttime canals, the reality of her circumstances grew more unbearable. The grief that had temporarily been masked by the pressing need to leave abruptly overcame her entirely.
Midway through her travels, Kidman recognised she just couldn’t continue. The emotional weight of losing her mother, combined with the travel fatigue and the overwhelming isolation, proved too difficult to bear. She took the hard choice to abandon her departure and go back to her accommodation, surrendering to her grief rather than resisting it. This moment of acceptance—acknowledging that she couldn’t physically escape her pain—paradoxically became a turning point. By permitting herself to completely feel her devastation, Kidman started facing her grief and finding the inner strength that would sustain her through the months ahead.
Finding Resilience through Solitude
In the wake of that harrowing night in Venice, Kidman has come to regard her experience through a distinctly different lens. Rather than focusing exclusively on the tragedy of losing her mother whilst alone in a foreign city, she has reconceptualised the experience as evidence of her own inner strength. Speaking at the HISTORYTalks 2026 event, the Australian actress pondered how surviving that particular moment of grief—managing it entirely alone, without family or professional support—has become a touchstone for understanding her resilience. She now relates to others that this experience solidified something vital within her: the understanding that she possesses the capacity to endure virtually anything life might present to her.
This discovery has profoundly shaped Kidman’s perspective on adversity and individual development. What initially seemed like an unbearable tragedy has evolved into a wellspring of inner resilience and self-understanding. The actress acknowledges that her capacity to remain present with her devastation, to face it completely rather than escape it, in the end became her most valuable lesson. This carefully developed comprehension of her own resilience has guided her following commitments and endeavours, including her decision to train as a death doula—a role that permits her to provide the empathy and attentiveness she wished she could have offered her mother to others facing their own death.
- Kidman uncovered deep resilience through facing grief alone in Venice
- She now uses this experience to help others as a prospective death doula
- Personal tragedy evolved into profound understanding of our ability to recover
Celebrating Her Mother’s Heritage
In the past two years since her mother Janelle’s passing aged 84, Nicole Kidman has channelled her grief into significant initiatives, turning personal loss into a commitment to serve others. Rather than permitting her mother’s death to be only a intimate sorrow, the acclaimed actress has looked for means to celebrate Janelle’s life by addressing the very gaps in care and compassion that she saw during her mother’s closing days. This conscious move from grief to action reflects Kidman’s characteristic resilience and her intention to make certain that her mother’s ordeal—and her own—might ultimately benefit others facing similar circumstances. By consciously striving to build the kind of support she hoped had been available, Kidman is incorporating her mother’s legacy into the structure of her future endeavours.
Kidman’s considerations of her mother’s loneliness during her final months have become a impetus for deeper introspection about care, family duties, and the boundaries of even the most caring loved ones. She has discussed openly about the competing priorities of her own work and family responsibilities, accepting the psychological impact of desiring to give more whilst simultaneously being stretched across multiple commitments. This openness about the difficulties families experience when providing care to older relatives has resonated with many who understand the complicated nature of modern caregiving. Rather than harbouring guilt or regret, Kidman has chosen to channel these considerations into meaningful transformation.
A Fresh Calling as End-of-Life Doula
Kidman’s plan to train as a death doula stemmed from her observations of her mother’s last days. During a talk at a independent school’s Silk Speaker Series, she explained the background to this decision to investigative journalist Vicky Nguyen, noting that she recognised a significant gap in the care framework encompassing dying process. A death doula provides emotional and practical support to the dying and their families, offering a caring presence that operates outside the conventional medical or family structure. Kidman acknowledged that this position could have provided an significant difference throughout her mother’s final illness, delivering the impartial care and support that even the most loving family members are sometimes unable to fully give.
The actress’s commitment to this path demonstrates a nuanced grasp of grief’s transformative potential. Rather than viewing her mother’s death as simply a personal tragedy, Kidman has pinpointed it as an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that could ease suffering for countless others. By working as a death doula, she will join a expanding community of individuals focused on rethinking the way we handle mortality and final stage care. This professional pursuit embodies not an flight from her pain, but rather an weaving together of it—a way of guaranteeing that her mother’s time, difficult as it was, functions as a wellspring of comfort for others.
Sharing the Opportunity of Advancement
Kidman’s progression from profound loss to deliberate intervention embodies a profound truth about our ability to recover: that our greatest suffering often holds the potential for our greatest acts of service. By choosing to train as a death care specialist, she is ultimately addressing the silent inquiry her mother’s death posed—how can one turn tragedy into compassion into collective care? This commitment reflects her awareness that what we leave behind extends beyond what we inherit or leave behind materially, but about the values and commitments we pass forward. Her mother’s presence will endure not only in her inner being, but in the journeys of unknown individuals whom she will accompany through their own last passages.
The broader implications of Kidman’s dedication surpass individual acts of kindness. By openly sharing her desire to work as a death doula, she is working to remove stigma from talk about end-of-life matters and care at the end of life—conversations that are still largely avoided in contemporary culture. Her ability to talk frankly about her mother’s loneliness and her own challenges as a carer allows others to admit comparable challenges without shame. In this way, Janelle Kidman’s legacy goes beyond her family, becoming part of a wider societal change toward greater compassion and mindfulness to mortality and the dying process.