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But in 2003 a proudly clean Urban told Melbourne’s Herald Sun that his struggle with addiction is simply part of his character. “I don’t know that you ever beat it,” he said. “It’s a struggle for me because I hate the straight road too. I find it very monotonous and boring. I like to dip my toe in the water – but not too far. That is where the trouble begins.” A year earlier he had said he did not consider alcohol trouble. “I still drink,” he told a reporter. “I get drunk. But it’s never sent me back to other things.”
Some close to Urban believe his love for Kidman may have made him realize that drinking was trouble enough. Says one source: “Perhaps having someone else to think of made him face it finally.”
At his wedding, he spoke of Kidman’s influence on him when, in his toast, he “acknowledged the dramatic change Nicole had already made in his life,” a guest told People. “He said something like, ‘You make me feel like I’m becoming the man I was always meant to be.’”
In the four months since, their bond has only grown closer, whether working out together at a gym near their Nashville home, stopping in at a local Starbucks for her green tea and his black coffee or chatting with Donatella Versace at a benefit dinner at Elton John’s home in London on Sept. 7. “Nicole looked fabulous and Keith looked like such a happy guy,” says one guest. “They just looked like a couple still on their honeymoon.” Songwriter Rodney Crowell saw the same glow while house hunting with the couple in Nashville: “Nicole just has such a sunny disposition, she felt like fresh air for Keith.”
But as Crowell points out, “Even the most beautiful human being in the world can’t do [recovery] for you. It comes down to whether he wants it for himself.” While Urban is in rehab, Kidman is soldiering on with life – taking scheduled meetings in L.A., even fitting in a Pilates class on Oct. 24 in West Hollywood. Urban’s friend Anastasia Brown, who was his manager in the ’90s during some of his most difficult years with drugs, is just one who believes Urban will not let Kidman down. “He’s a strong and amazing person,” says Brown, “so he’s dealing with this challenge just as he does with everything in life – with grace, strength and integrity.”
• By Karen S. Schneider and Anne Marie Cruz. Kate Klise and Kay West in Nashville, Alanna Nash in Louisville, Ky.,Cindy Dampier, Lauren Comander and Kelly Williams in Chicago, Pete Norman in London and Elizabeth Leonard in L.A.
