Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban Divorce: Sandra Bullock Exposes Actress' Radical New Life Following Split

Nicole Kidman's 'radical' post-divorce reinvention is playing out in Hollywood and at home, according to longtime friend and co-star Sandra Bullock, who says the actress is now 'free and wild' following her split from Keith Urban, finalised in January in the United States.

The fresh insight into Kidman's life after divorce surfaced during a new joint interview for the first-ever 4K UHD release of Practical Magic, due out on 25 August. Bullock, 61, and Kidman sat down to revisit the 1998 fantasy drama that turned their witchy Owens sisters into cult-film icons, and they were asked how much of themselves they see in those characters nearly three decades on.

Bullock did not hesitate. In her view, Kidman's real-life energy today is uncannily close to Gillian Owens, the reckless, sensual nomad she played in the film. Bullock, who portrayed Gillian's careful, homebound sister Sally, said she has long admired that streak.

'Gillian is really brave. I always wish I could be more like that in life. She knows what she is. She embraces what she is, and she fully leans into it,' Bullock said in the clip, which was obtained by People.

Then she drew a line straight from the character to the woman now sitting beside her. 'She's playing a character, but you are seeing a lot of who Nicole really is,' Bullock added. 'She's free and wild and adventurous and is always doing something amazing.'

It is a small remark on the face of it, but loaded, given the timing. Kidman's marriage to country star Keith Urban, one of Hollywood's most closely watched partnerships, legally ended earlier this year. Neither has offered extended public comment on the reasons for the split, and their representatives have kept the focus on work and family rather than private detail, but the way Bullock talks about her friend hints at a woman leaning hard into a new chapter.

Nicole Kidman Divorce Shadows Her Practical Magic Confessions

In case you missed it, Practical Magic followed the Owens sisters, witches living under a generational curse that dooms the men they love. Sally, played by Bullock, longs for a deep, safe partnership. Gillian, played by Kidman, bolts for the open road and lives by impulse, telling herself that real love is simply not on the cards.

Asked why Gillian still resonates with her now, Kidman turned that storyline inward.

'I don't want to reject who I am and what I am, and I love being who I am,' she said. Gillian, she explained, has 'her own barriers and walls, which is, 'Well, I'm just gonna have fun, and I know I'll never be able to experience love or have love, but that's okay.''

On its own, it is a reflection on a fictional witch in a 90s fantasy. Set against a recent divorce, it sounds closer to someone trying to square personal freedom with the risk of getting hurt again. Kidman did not specifically connect those dots herself, and nothing in the interview directly addressed Keith Urban or the end of their marriage, so any parallels are just that, parallels.

Still, Bullock's description of Kidman as 'free and wild' lands differently when you remember the public version of Kidman during her Urban years, often framed as the devoted wife in the front row of an arena tour. Now she is promoting a beloved cult film in pristine 4K, preparing to revisit that world in a sequel, and talking very openly about embracing exactly who she is.

Producer Denise Di Novi, who returns for the sequel, suggested that both women have blurred the boundary between character and self for years. Speaking about Bullock's Sally, she said audiences latched on to the way the performance made loss feel real.

'Sally is very different in that she has always yearned for that deep, true soulmate love, and she found it, but she lost the man that she fell in love with, and people really related to her,' Di Novi said. 'Sandra Bullock brought so much emotion to Sally, and I was surprised by the depth of that emotion and how it affected people.'

If Sally is the one who clings to the hope of perfect, lasting love, Gillian is the defence mechanism in human form, all jokes and sex and late-night drives so she never has to admit what she wants. That Kidman is finding fresh common ground with Gillian, not Sally, right now tells its own quiet story.

Practical Magic 2 Puts Nicole Kidman's Owens Women Back Under The Curse

The latest reveal about Kidman's post-divorce mindset came as Warner Bros rolled out the first trailer for Practical Magic 2 on 25 June. The sequel brings Bullock and Kidman back as Sally and Gillian, now older, still bound by family history and that same brutal curse.

The new film introduces Sally's daughters, Kylie and Antonia, played by Joey King and Maisie Williams. The trailer opens with a reminder that 'no magic is stronger than sisterhood', before quickly making clear that the next generation will not outrun the Owens legacy either.

Kylie falls in love despite knowing the curse brings tragedy to the men Owens women cherish. It is Gillian, of all people, who frames the danger in a single line pulled for the trailer: 'We're Owens women. Love is our undoing.'

For fans who still swap spell recipes and midnight margarita clips on TikTok, it is catnip. For anyone tracking Kidman's off-screen life, it is another little echo. On screen, she plays a woman who has convinced herself that love is too dangerous. Off screen, her best friend is on record saying she is more adventurous and less constrained than ever.

The studio, unsurprisingly, is sticking to the work. The 4K UHD release of the original Practical Magic lands on 25 August, pegged to the nostalgic energy around late-90s genre cinema and designed to prime audiences for the sequel. There has been no official comment from Warner Bros on Kidman's personal life, and IBTimes UK cannot independently verify any speculation about how closely the themes of the film mirror her recent experience, so take everything lightly.

What is confirmed is this. Nicole Kidman is back in a role that once defined a certain kind of female rebellion, her divorce from Keith Urban is final, and Sandra Bullock is telling the world that her friend is, essentially, done playing small. Whether that counts as radical depends on where you are standing. From here, it looks a bit like magic, practical or otherwise.