She was supposed to accept the award for best actress in Venice. But shortly before the ceremony, Nicole Kidman received bad news and left immediately.
Hollywood star Nicole Kidman was due to receive the award for best actress at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday evening. However, the Australian was unable to accept the trophy for her role in the erotic thriller “Babygirl”. A few hours before the awards ceremony, she received the news of the unexpected death of her mother Janelle Ann Kidman.
“My heart is broken,” Nicole Kidman had the film's Dutch director, Halina Reijn, read out on her behalf on stage. She learned of the death of her “beautiful, brave mother” shortly after arriving in Venice. “I am in shock and have to go to my family. But this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me, she created me,” the 57-year-old said of her mother. Janelle Ann Kidman was 84 years old.
Nicole Kidman and her mother were close. Janelle Ann often accompanied her daughter to events and posed with her on the red carpet. The actress also occasionally shared pictures of them together on Instagram. “My beautiful mom, happy Mother's Day! I couldn't love you more,” she wrote last year alongside photos showing her as a child and adult with Janelle Ann and her sister Antonia. You can see the latter by clicking on the arrow on the right.
Nicole Kidman's father Antony also died unexpectedly in 2014 at the age of 75. He suffered a heart attack while visiting his younger daughter Antonia in Singapore. The actress never fully got over this shock. “I have never nursed anyone through a slow death, I have only ever had people taken from me unexpectedly,” Nicole Kidman explained in an interview with the Australian newspaper “Sydney Morning Herald” in 2020.
Seven months after her father, her brother-in-law died at just 46 years of age. Angus Hawley collapsed during a business trip in New York, and any help came too late. “It's happened to me several times now, I'm almost scared when I say it because I'm afraid it will happen again. I'm always very scared.” Now Nicole Kidman has to cope with another sudden loss.
