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Nicole Kidman at the Los Angeles premiere of "The Perfect Couple" held at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on September 4, 2024 © Variety

Nicole Kidman recalls being 'teased' as a child in heartbreaking new video

Nicole is mom to son Connor and daughters Bella, Sunday and Faith

Rebecca Lewis
Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
Los Angeles correspondentLos Angeles
September 18, 2024
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Nicole Kidman is today known as one of the most beautiful and successful actresses of the last three decades, with an Oscar, Golden Globes and two Emmys.

But as a teenager the mother-of-four has now revealed that she was often teased for her height and body type, to the point where she desperately wanted to change herself to fit in with the other girls.

"I mean, I was a red-headed, fair-skinned girl who was almost 5’11 at the age of 14,” she said in the new Vogue documentary,  In Vogue: The 90s, airing on Hulu. "I would get teased, and it wasn’t kind."

Nicole Kidman is photographed in 1983 in Sydney© Patrick Riviere
Nicole Kidman is photographed in 1983 in Sydney

However, when she began to find fame in the early 1990s she was asked by John Galliano of Dior if he could dress her for the 1997 Academy Award, and it was a turning point for the star.

"Can you believe it?” she asks rhetorically. "My whole life, I wanted to be 5’2” and curvaceous and suddenly, being 5’11 and completely sort of skinny and flat chested, was like, ‘Great, we can dress you.'"

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise at the 1997 Oscars© Kevin Mazur
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise at the 1997 Oscars

Nicole also spoke of how the 90s was a turning point for fashion and Hollywood, recalling the way the actresses of the 1950s were "affiliated" with designers and specific looks.

"I grew up watching Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly — all these women whose style was created with the designers that they’re affiliated with,” she said.

"They just loved fashion. So I remember thinking, but of course, this should be brought into Hollywood now, and we should be wearing the things that are made in these gorgeous little salons in Paris. Because that’s what they used to do, so why aren’t we still doing it?"

Nicole stuns in a figure-hugging black dress© Karwai Tang
Nicole has become a style icon

She then shared that getting the chance to be given "access" to that world left her feeling like "a little girl who's been given the chance to step into this sort of fantasy world".

Now, at 57, Nicole is a fashion icon, and earlier in the summer was joined by her daughter Sunday Rose at Balenciaga's 53rd Couture Collection as part of Paris Fashion Week.

Nicole Kidman and her daughter Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban with other attendees at Balenciaga's Paris Fashion Week couture show© Instagram/Derek Blasberg
Nicole and her daughter Sunday Rose with other attendees at Balenciaga's Paris Fashion Week couture show

The teen, now 15, is clearly following in her mom's fashion footsteps and taking inspiration from Nicole.

Nicole rocked a floor-length skin tight gown that highlighted her lean physique, while Sunday kept things chic in a more age-appropriate version, wearing a full-sleeved black velvet mini dress with sheer tights and a pair of stiletto heels.

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